THK 



New Kmpirb 



AND J-iER 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



WILSON HAMILTON. 



r^LlBRARY OF CONCr. • ,6^ 



CH^p..£ii:i_ 

SHELr._i_ti-Li 



JS^^^N'TED STATES OF AMERICA. ' 

^'3»S 9—167 I 



THB 



NEW EMPIRE 



AND HER 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN; 

OR 

TPhe Pacikic Coast, 

ITS FARMS, MINES, VINES, WINES, ORCHARDS, AND 
INTERESTS; ITS PRODUCTIONS, INDUS- 
TRIES AND .COMMERCE, 



INTERESTING BIOGRAPHIES 



MODES OF TRA VEL. 



fiY 

WILSON HAMILTON. 

i! 



OAKLAND, CAL.: 

Pacific Press Publishing House. 
1886. 



54595 

Entered, accofdiiig to Act of Congress, in the Year jSS6, by 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 









THIS BOOK 

— IS — 
^BSPEGHiPULiLY DEDI6A1IED 

BY THE 

AUTHOR. 



CONTKNTS. 



Introductory v 

Topography 9 

Productions of the New Empire 14 

Vineyards and Orchards 28 

Money, its Nature and Uses 36 

Gold and Silver 39 

Curbstone Brokers 41 

Discovery of Gold 44 

Dealing in Stocks 52 

Other Minerals 55 

Yosemite 60 

School, Pulpit and Press 68 

Bench and Bar 75 

Monterey 77 

Modes of Travel 80 

World's Fair 83 

California 85 

Irrigation 93 

Irrigation, Continued 98 

Fresno County 106 

Tulare County 109 

Kern County 113 

Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego 117 

Merced County 121 

The San Joaquin Valley and its Mountain Rim 125 

Around the Sacramento Valley — The Mountain Counties of the 

North 128 

The Sacramento Valley 132 

California— A Resume 138 

Irrigation and Drainage 140 

Biographies 166 

John P. Jones 167 

George Hearst 171 

Leland Stanford 172 

James G. Fair iS? 



INTRODUCTORY. 



FOR the purposes of this work, all that scope of country 
west of the Rocky Mountains is embraced in the domain 
designated as the New Empire, but for a more definite 
and comprehensive description of its extent, coast line, polit- 
ical divisions and population, the following table is submitted: 



Political Divisions. 



Square 
Miles. 



California 

Oregon 

Nevada 

Washington 

Idaho 

Utah 

Arizona 

Pacific Montana 

Pacific Wyoming 

Pacific Colorado 

Pacific New Mexico. . . . 

Alaska 

British Columbia 

Pacific Mexico 

Pacific Central America 



185,360 

96,030 

110,700 

69, 1 80 

84,800 

84,970 

113,020 

22,000 

22,000 

40,000 

24,000 

577,390 

310,000 

550,000 

50,000 



Total : 2,312,450 



Population. 



864,686 

174,767 

62,265 

75,120 

32,611 

143,906 

40,441 

8,000 

4,000 

10,000 

20,000 

30,000 

20,000 

3,500,000 

600,000 



5,585,796 



. 


_ 






c 






rt 




c^ 


■£■-3 J. 


¥•£ ^: 


a 






■- a 


C D.- 




-s « 


J<=«5 


u^S 


•i o- 


c 




£w 







5 


655 


735 


2 


28S 


300 


y2 


440 




I 


245 


245 


1/ 


480 




2 


345 




y, 


4S0 




y\ 


310 




% 


275 




% 


275 




I 


345 






1,190 


1,470 


.... 


396 


560 


7 


1,260 


1,950 


II 


560 


910 


2 




6,170 






,097 

285 
",738 



000 

181 

000 

450 



56,751 



This gives an area of 2,312,450 square miles, extending 
over a territory ranging from perpetual winter to eternal 
spring, so varied in its climate and productions as to yield 
almost every article requisite for the use of man, indeed, so 
broad and varied in its range, that, were the Pacific Coast 
shut off from the rest of the world by an impassable gulf or 
blockade, the population, enlarged to 100,000,000 or more, 
could still live in the enjoyment, by production and manufac- 



vi INTRO D UCTOR Y. 

tories, of every necessary and luxury of life. Of this area 
250,000 square miles may be considered valuable chiefly for 
the minerals which are found, of great richness and variety, in 
the river beds, gulches and mountain ranges ; an equal 
amount is at present regarded as comparatively barren and 
valueless ; 500,000 square miles is tillable soil, 300,000 ex- 
cellent forest, and 1,000,000 good grazing land. 

It is the design of the author to make " The New 
Empire and Her Representative Men" a popular book, re- 
l^lete with practical information on subjects of general inter- 
est relating to the region west of the Rocky Mountains, 
showing the rapid progress which has been made since the 
discovery of gold in 1848, in the creation and accumulation 
of wealth and in advanced civilization, and also the beneficent 
opportunities yet waiting to be appropriated by the intelli- 
gent and industrious immigrant. Thirty years ago this whole 
realm was a comparatively uninhabited wilderness ; to-day 
it is a thriving, prosperous comimonwealth, peopled by an 
enterprising, industrious population, successfully engaged in 
all the various avocations of life. 

No State or country can be found, from the rising to the 
setting of the sun, where local institutions are more diver-' 
sified, where they have grown up more rapidly and been 
established on a firmer or more enduring basis than here. 

Mining was the original, and, for a long time, the chief 
business of the coast ; but, as mining developed, broadened 
its area and influence, it created new demands, demands for 
the brightest intellects in the professions, in the trades, and 
in commerce, for banking, mercantile and shipping houses, 
for steamship lines to traverse the ocean in all directions, and 
our bays and rivers at home, for transcontinental and local 
railroads, for manufacturing establishments, insurance com- 



INTR on UCTOR V. vii 

panics, all the productions of the husbandman, the vine- 
yardist and kindred industries. 

And, whilst the people have been pushing, crowding, 
grasping and hurrying to get rich, they have steadily culti- 
vated the higher qualities of manhood, morally, socially and 
politically; they have erected magnificent churches and con- 
tributed liberally to their support ; built up and endowed 
institutions of learning, of the arts and sciences which are 
the pride and ornament of the coast. 

As a rule they have learned to accept the ups and downs, 
the stern realities of life, philosophically, neither to be over^ 
elated as the toiler in poverty suddenly drops into the lap of 
luxury, or to be depressed when the tide of fortune turns and 
sweeps him down the stream, recognizing the fact that every 
man must fight the battle of life for himself, and that it is 
the part of good citizenship to do it independently and cheer- 
fully. 

In this regard our representative men have set an ex- 
ample worthy of emulation by devoting a share of their 
talents, influence and wealth to the good of their fellows. 
Bold and determined in business, vigorous and comprehensive 
in thought, generous and manly in spirit, they engage in the 
most stupendous undertakings, as though they were but every- 
day affairs, and then energetically push them to success and 
so accumulate colossal fortunes. They do not live for them- 
selves alone, but recognize their duty and responsibility to 
the State and society, ready and willing of their own abun- 
dance to create new enterprises, if need be, or foster those 
of others, whether of a public or private nature, and for the 
unselfish purpose of doing good to the community in which 
they made their money, satisfied with the rewards that good 
deeds always bring. The Pacific Coast has many such men, 



viii INTRO D UCTOR Y. 

and it is fortunate that she has, because it is to their com- 
mendable enterprise, broad-reaching views and business tact, 
that we owe the development of our resources and the pros- 
perity we enjoy. 

But there are non-representative men, those who rep- 
resent nobody and nothing- but themselves and their indi- 
vidual estates ; misers, measly misers, narrow-minded money 
gluttons who acknowledge no duty or obligation to the State 
or society, who shut themselves up with their gold bags and 
turn their backs on every enterprise and every good work 
without regard to its merits or necessity. The good they do 
is when they die; the joy they bring is when relatives gather 
around the executor's table to receiv'e their share of the 
hoarded treasure. 

The writer was a pioneer ; has seen all the phases, the 
bright and shady side, of California life; familiar with historic 
facts and events, he will treat all the subjects incident to 
" The New Empire and Her Representative Men," associ- 
ated with living issues, faithfully, from personal knowledge 
and observation, properly representing the character of the 
country for health, wealth, natural resources, climate and 
scenery, and pointing out clearly and concisely the ad- 
vantages and inducements offered to those seeking homes 
and fortunes on the friendly shores of the Pacific. 



THE NEW EMPIRE 



AND HER 



RBPRESBNTATIVE MEN. 



CHAPTER I. 

TOPOGRAPHY. 

THE topography of the Pacific Coast, and of California 
especially, greatly resembles that of Asia. The Sierra 
Nevada Range of mountains rises like a rampart, lofty, mys- 
terious, snow-crowned, along the eastern line of the State, 
furnishing scenery as varied and as grand as the eye of man 
has seen. High up on their crest are the head-waters of 
great rivers, and there lakes nestle under the guardianship of 
the clouds. In one place, slashed by that God-wrought won- 
der, the Yosemite V^alley; in others, fissured by profound 
canons, their slopes are shaded by forests of pine and cedar, 
and their granite frames nurture the great Sequoia, the big, 
trees, over which the world has marveled. Out of their 
sides burst hot and mineral springs, with high medicinal and 
curative properties, and vineyards are creeping up the ter- 
raced grade of their foot-hills. Set along them are the 
craters of volcanoes extinct, great scars of a fiery ulceration, 
that mark the long past period of upheaval. In other places 
lone peaks uncover their blear skulls to the storm and sun- 
shine, far above the spurning and conquering foot of the ex- 
plorer. 

Between this range and the Coast Mountains, lie the two 
great valleys of California, the San Joaquin and Sacramento, 

9 



10 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

traversed by the streams of the same names, which receive 
many a snow-fed confluent, and are wedded in the waters of 
San Francisco Bay. These valleys cover 64,000,000 of acres, 
and with proper conditions it is all tillable and capable of 
high farming. Sheltered by the lofty mountains, they are 
the home of the vine and olive, and of all the semi-tropical 
fruits. In the spring-time they are closely carpeted with 
wild flowers of many colors, which reach beyond the vision in 
solid masses of gay tint. Soon human industry will cover 
these with vineyards, and wrest from them a harvest of del- 
icate and necessary food that will make American markets 
independent of the raisins of Valencia, the oranges of Mes- 
sina, and the oils of Lucca. 

Following the western rim of these valleys, the Coast 
Range rises and shelters charming vales and glens highly 
cultivated, and sustaining a prosperous population. In this 
Coast Range are the dairy pastures of the State, and, as they 
are developed, their herbage will send out cheese that rivals 
that made in the vales of Cheddar, equal to the Neufchatel 
diX\d frojnag'e de Brie. 

These valleys were all once the feeding ground of count- 
less herds of cattle and droves of horses. The latter would 
so increase that long before American occupation they would 
be circled in a grand battue and stampeded over the cliffs 
into the Pacific. And to this, day, along the coast is many a 
Golgotha covered with reefs of their bones. In the'mountains 
on either side of these main valleys, are the world's richest 
mines of precious metals. Here are gold and silver and 
quicksilver, and the torrents of ages have washed gold into 
the- beds of the streams, where it lies, a tempting prize, in 
many a natural sluice box, caught ift the rocky riffles invented 
by nature long before a " long tom " was devised by man. 

On the Nevada side of the Sierra Nevada Range, the 
baldness of the mountains is compensated by the richness 
of the mineral deposits which they hide, while they bound, 
also, many a green valley, fairy lake and brawling stream, 
and on all sides rise so as to shut in the State by mighty ram- 
parts that make it like a great dish; and all the streams that 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 11 

rise within its borders sink also within them. Nevada keeps 
her waters at home, and gives none to the riparian systems 
around her, and none to the full, yet thirsty sea. 

The mountain system of Oregon in general resembles 
that of California, and is closely copied by Washington Ter- 
ritory. 

The most remote of our possessions lies still beyond, 
and the mountains which, south of the Rio Grande we name 
the Cordilleras, the Andes, and the Sierra Madre, in Califor- 
nia the Sierra Nevada, link Alaska to the tropics; albeit, here 
they guard fiords as grand as those of Norway, and down 
their caiions creep glaciers to which science and curiosity 
Avill make pilgrimage. 

Here we have the climate of Scotland in the latitude of 
Scandinavia. The waters are crowded with fish, and the 
rocks peopled with seal and sea otter, the noblest of fur-bear- 
ing amphibia, while the hills are richer in coal than all En- 
gland, Scotland, and Belgium, and even superficial search has 
revealed gold mines where the ore is stripped like a limestone 
ledge, quarried with a crowbar, and dumped into the mills that 
have tide-water on their outer wall. Here, too, are forests as 
dense and trees as grand as those in whose shadows human 
fancy wrought out the images of Thor and Woden, as chil- 
dren see pictures in the fire; and the whole, fish, fur, timber, 
■coal, and gold, offer virgin resources awaiting to be made pro- 
ductive by wedding them to human skill and energy. 

The geology of all this region of mountains, and foot- 
hills, and valleys, belongs, as to its rocks, to the plutcnic, 
upper secondary, tertiary, and volcanic formations. Here 
nature set up her anvil, and from the fires of her forge welded 
the spine and ribs of a structure that rose over against the 
sea and put an everlasting bound to its waters. Then, upon 
the sublime heights, came snows and floods, and by erosion, 
corrugated the mountain-sides with gorge and canon, and in 
the process, disintegrated granite and the metamorphic rocks 
to make the soils and sands of the valley. Volcanic fires and 
forces spouted lava to run like rivers searching for the sea, 
and as sun and shower comminuted and dissolved it, to pre- 
pare food for the vine and olive. 



12 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

The botany and zoology of all this area are set with feat- 
ures not held in common with any other part of the Union. 
Even the deer differs from its cousin east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and the wild goat and mountain sheep have no 
familiar representative elsewhere. Here is the home of the 
grizzly, the monarch of bears, and of the mountain lion, that 
scourge of the sheep-fold, and wily enemy of man.. Even the 
robin and jay wear here a different plumage, and the very 
lark salutes the cheery morning with a novel note. 

The oak, elm, and willow are peculiar, and so through the 
whole range of deep vegetation. The big trees are the last 
of the giant autoctJions that were before the forests of spruce 
and pine and cedar had been nurtured in their shade. Here 
the bay tree distills its spicy odors, the madrona spreads its 
tawny arms, and the manzanita softens the landscape with its 
dark red bark and foliage of steely green. The very flow- 
ers are diverse in their beauties, from the voluptuous lily of 
Mariposa to the golden poppy and blue lupin, which carpet 
the plains in fabric of color ever changing, and alwa}'s beau- 
tiful. 

The scenery furnished by this variety and combination 
of mountain, plain and valley, tree and blossom, has no supe- 
rior in the world. No wonder that here the brush of Bierstadt 
caught its earliest inspiration, and did its noblest work. 
Here the sun shines more hours in the year than elsewhere; 
the climate conduces to the highest state of health, is the 
most equable, and permits the soul to know the presence of 
the encumbering body only through the sensations of pleasure 
and peace of which it is the medium. 

Though a winterless land, this is not a climate that en- 
ervates, but, to the contrary, it seems to spur men to the 
keenest quest, to sharpen their faculties for industry, and in 
witness of this stand our railroad constructions, the most diffi- 
cult in the world, our delta lands, redeemed as Holland con- 
quered provinces from the ocean, and our deep mining, which 
overcame the most appalling subterranean problems, and 
taught a novel pathway to mineral treasures secreted in what 
may be termed the most intricate convolutions of the bowels 
of the earth. 



1^ THE NEW EMPIRE. 

CHAPTER I I. 

THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE NEW EMPIRE. 

THE Pacific slope of the American Continent is a country of 
great natural resources and productions. Her mineral de- 
posits include every variety in general use. Her forests contain 
every useful tree, even those nowhere else found, with wild fruits 
in profusion, and a charming variety of shrubs and flowers 
to adorn and beautify. Her waters abound in food fish 
and fur-bearing animals. Her mountains, forests and plains 
are alive with a wide range of game, fur and feathered, large 
and small. And wheat, oats, barley, rye, corn, peas and beans, 
with staple vegetables and fruit, grow abundantly all over the 
realm, while California excels in semi-tropical productions^ 
and in certain localities even those indigenous to the tropics. 
Her scenery has a broad and interesting range from the pas- 
toral and gentle to the wild, imposing and impressive. Her 
climate is full, clear, and bracing, invigorating and healthful; 
conducive to long life and happiness. 

The nature and yield of the crops of any country de- 
pend on climate, soil and other conditions. On the Pacific 
slope it is the other conditions which strike the new-comer 
and even the old settler with astonishment. They are subtle^ 
peculiar and cannot be explained on any general known law or 
principle; and as this is not an abstruse but rather a practical 
work, no theories will be indulged in, or effort made seeking 
an explanation, but the facts will be accepted as found and 
intelligently applied. The British poet laureate can take a 
worthless sheet of paper, and, by writing a poem on it, make 
it worth $65,000; that is genius. A millionaire can write a 
few words on a sheet of paper and make it worth $5,000,000; 
that is capital. The United States can take an ounce and a 
quarter of gold and stamp an eagle bird on it, and make it 
worth $20.00; that is money. The mechanic can take the 
material worth $5.00 and make it worth $ioo; that is skill. 
The merchant can take an article worth 25 cents and sell it 
for $[.00; that is business. These things are peculiar to the 
parties in interest, but they can all be explained. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 1& 

Indigenous animals, trees, fruits and flowers are found here 
under conditions nowhere else to be met with. The cereals, 
fruits and blossoms transplanted here from their native or 
other soils excel in abundance, richness and flavor under con- 
ditions nowhere else found. This is peculiar to the Pacific 
Coast, but it cannot be explained, and hence explorers, trav- 
elers and tourists exclaim, " We never savv the like of this be- 
fore;" and scientific climatologists confess themselves balked 
by things they cannot account for. 

CEREALS. 

In order to give the reader as clear and perfect an under- 
standing as possible of the situation, the yield and value of 
the cereal crops, the writer has selected from a vast mass of 
matter gathered during the past year, a number of statements 
made by settlers residing in different sections of the country, 
and will give them in the exact language of the farmers who 
made them, because they are reasonably broad in their range, 
and are evidently the candid expressions of opinions by well- 
disposed men, who, from practical tests and experience, know 
of what they speak and can testify of what they have seen. 
" I came here," says the first farmer, "on April 3, 1877, and 
made a homestead settlement on this land, and have therefore 
been here eight }-ears. To say that I am glad. that I came 
would but mildly express my feelings on the subject. The 
-first year I put in 15 acres of wheat, oats, and barley, and 
about I acre of potatoes. My wheat, sown on the sod, 
brought 25 bushels to the acre; barley 30, and oats 50 bushels 
to the acre. The potatoes, also planted on the sod, yielded 
180 bushels to the acre. I think this is the best poor man's 
country in the United States, and the healthiest. It is far 
ahead of Texas. There is no man who can come into this 
country and fail to prosper and get a home, if he can work 
and is industrious. When I came I had nothing except an 
old wagon and four old mustang horses. I came overland. 
When I reached here I had only $75.00 left, and with this I 
bought my seed, plow, i 5 harrow teeth, and groceries for 6 
months, and I had $1.75 left. The first thing I did was to 



16 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

commence plowing. The next year I broke up about 12 acres 
more, making 27 acres in all, and sowed it to wheat, oats and 
barley. That year the old and new wheat ground averaged 
35 bushels per acre. In the following year, I broke up a little 
more ground, but had only 3 acres in wheat, which aver- 
aged 57 bushels, and it was the best I ever raised, I threshed 
this out with the horses, and if I had had a threshing machine 
it would have averaged a great deal more. In regard to the 
general run of the crops here, I have raised about 35 of wheat, 
average, and barley 55 to 60. All the wheat I have raised 
has been spring wheat, sown from the ist of May to as late 
as the 15th of June. It would not be safe to sow it later than 
the 15th of June, though it might be put in as late as the 15th 
of July and if the season happened to be of unusual length 
a crop of grain might be reaped; and, if not, a good crop of 
hay could be cut off. In subsequent years my crop averaged 
just about the same as the first year. In 1883 my wheat 
went 33 bushels to the acre; barley went about 60 and oats 
about 75. Last year I sold my produce right here on my 
place and did not haul a pound away. My wheat brought me 
$1.00 a bushel; barley 96 cents; oats 6^ cents. Butter will 
average 25 to 50 cents per pound; chickens from $3.50 to 
$6.00 per dozen, and eggs 25 to 40 cents. This is a superior 
country for chickens. Hogs 3 to 5 cents on foot. Dressed 
pork 4 to 7 cents per pound; bacon, now selling at 16 to 18 
cents, has been selling as high as 20. Stock cows with calves 
at their side are worth $12.50 per head; dairy cows with 
calves, $25,00 to $40.00 per head. I am well acquainted with 
all the country, and have kept posted as to the yield of crops, 
and from what I know it would not be far out of the way to 
place the average yield of produce, grain, etc., about as fol- 
lows: Wheat, 35 bushels; oats, 75; barley, 50; corn, 40; rye,. 
20; beans, 30; potatoes, 300. To prove what I say, that this 
is the best poor man's land in America, I will figure up the 
result of my 8 years' labor on this farm: I have here 160 acres 
of land, which, in its present improved condition, with 
houses, barns, fences, etc., is worth $20.00 per acre, and I 
would not sell at that price — land of the same quality as mill- 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 17 

ions of acres in this neigliborhood belonging to the Govern- 
ment and the railroad. I have 1 1 head of horses, worth at 
least $50.00 each; I have 16 dairy cows, worth $35.00 each; 
16 head of young stock on the range, yearlings and 2-}-ear- 
olds, worth $i6o; a mower and reaper combined, hay rake, a 
sulky plow and a new Mitchell wagon; a harrow, cultivator, 
and all (.ther tools and implements necessary for m}' work, 
which are worth $602. And I realized out of my last \-car'3 
crop, clear of all expenses, $635. To sum up, I have: — 

Land worth $3, 200 

1 1 head horses 550 

16 dairy cows 560 

Cattle on range 160 

Fanning implements, etc 602 

Net profit on last year's crop 635 

Total $5,707 

" To this aggregate should be added an allowance for food 
and clothing for myself and family during the eight years 
which, at a very low estimate, was not less than $400 per )■ ear, 
making for the whole time, $3,200. When you add this to 
the value of the land, stock, etc., you have a total of $8,907. 
Therefore, b}' a little figuring, you will see that I have earned 
about $1,100 per }'ear. Now, in addition to this, I have 
bought 320 acres of railroad land at just a little more than 
the price of Government land, and in two years my 480 acres 
will probably be worth $50.00 per acre. To state the case 
roughly, ten, or at the most twelve years of healthful occupa- 
tion and labor in one of the very best of climates, with only 
a couple of hundred dollars in cash and effects to start on, 
will have accumulated for me money and property to the 
amount of $25,000. And if }'ou can show me any other 
country in which a man can do the like of this, I would just 
like to have you point it out to me." 

The next farmer, residing in one of the Territories, says: 
" I have been on this land four }'ears, and have raised four 
crops. The first year I broke up 1 5 acres, plowed the last 
week in May, sowed wheat, and threshed out by tramping of 
horses 45 bushels to the acre. I sowed about the loth of 
June. I had also 20 acres of oats, which were as high as a 
2 



18 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

man's head, and brought me 75 bushels to the acre. Another 
field of 30 acres was broken up that summer, and in the fol- 
lowing season, April i, sowed to wheat; and this time, by the 
use of the threshing machine, I saved a yield of 1.650 bush- 
els, or 55 bushels per acre. It stood six feet high, and headed 
out larger than any wheat I ever saw. In the course of a few 
years there will be no more open stock range left in this re- 
gion, for wheat growing will take up all the land. My crops 
have been very large every one of the seasons I have been 
here. I do not hesitate to say that the average wheat crop for 
last year was over 35 bushels to the acre. I know this sounds 
big, and people might be tempted to say I was willfully mis- 
representing the facts, but a good many things happen in this 
world from time to time that are not put down in the books 
and that are new to the common experience." 

It may be instructive to look for a moment at the profit 
that may be realized from a quarter-section, yielding in wheat 
the average indicated. The following estimate is made from 
data taken from sources of authority: — 

EXPENSES. 

Fall plowing 160 acres, at $2 ... . $320 

Seed wheat, ij-^ bushels per acre, at 45c loS 

Sowing and harrowing, 75c. per acre 120 

Cutting, binding, and shocking, $2 per acre 320 

Hauling, threshing, etc., $250 per acre 400 

Total expenses of crop, $7.92^ per acre $1,268 

RECEIPTS. 

5,600 bushels of wheat, being an average yield of 35 bush- 
els per acre, worth 50c. per Ijushel $2,Soo 

Deduct expenses of crop, $7.92 j^ per acre i ,268 

Receipts over expenses, $9.57/^ per acre $i>532 

Here is a profit per acre of nearly four times the price 
at which the land is offered for sale to-day, both by the Gov- 
ernment and the railroad. 

Another farmer, residing in the North, says': " I came 
from New York and settled here about 15 miles from a 
railroad station, and have 320 acres of land. All of my farm 
except 80 acres is bottom-land, wa::red by a creek and 
springs. The 80-acre tract is on Ine hill-sides, and was 
originally bunch grass land. I have raised 100 bushels of 



THE I\E]V EjSIPIRE, 19 

the best wheat I pver saw, on less than one acre, the field 
which you see in froiu of my house. I have sowed 30 acres 
of wheat every year since I came here, and the average for 
7 years past on these 30 acres ha^ been 45 bushels per 
acre. These 30 acres produced from 35 bushels on the poor- 
est grounJ to looon the best, averaging- as I have told }'OU. 
There is plenty of just such land as this, where the soil is 
darker and is not made land by washings from the hills, but 
is black, rich land. Much of the choice Government land in 
the country is taken up b}- settlers, but there is plenty of 
land remaining which is for sale by the railroad. The best 
land is of the high rolling prairies, with clay subsoil, the top 
soil being from one to six and more feet deep. The value of 
clay subsoil is that it holds the rains and moisture longer. 
The deeper the body of clay, the better the wheat land, 
but this is owing only to the fact that the clay retains the 
moisture, not permitting it to sink out of reach of the surface 
soil. I guess that the presence of clay has nothing to do 
with the quality of the land, but is only a conservator of 
moisture. Hence it is that land having a clay subsoil may be 
of a poorer qv.ality than other land not having it, and yet 
produce a larger crop. There is sufficient moisture in the at- 
mosphere to produce a large yield without the help of rain. 
The seasons of 1872-73 and 1874, were the driest seasons 
shice I came here, during which but a very small quantity 
of rain fell. In 1872, from March 15 to December 15, there 
was not more than three or four showers, and those very light, 
falling in July, and yet the crops those years were the heaviest 
I have raised here. It was in one of these dry seasons, 1873, 
that I raised over 100 bushels of wheat to the acre. The 
heads were exceedingly long and heavy; and, mind you, this 
wheat was not threshed with a machine, but tramped out in 
the old-fashioned way. I have a pretty fair idea of the char- 
acter of the county. 

" Besides wheat, we can raise crops of other kinds that 
would surprise people. This land yields 60, 70, and 80 bush- 
els of oats to the acre; and I have never seen so poor a crop 
here as 30 bushels per acre. Corn does well on high lands 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 21 

and on the tops of hills, but not in the bottoms. It would 
average say 40 bushels to the acre. The reason why it docs 
not grow well in the low-lands is that there is too much frost 
there at night; but there is none on the hills. Peas are the 
largest crop you can pur in the ground. I have raised over 
50 bushels to the acre. As to hay, there has not been any 
sown to speak of. But the wild timothy grows profusely. I 
have cut 2^2 tons to the acre of this wild hay from the bot- 
tom-lands. The temperature in this part of the county is 
more even than that of any country I have ever lived in. 
The winters here are tropical compared to those of Illinois. 
Because of the mildness of the climate and the cheap and good 
grazing, this is the best sheep and cattle country that I have 
ever been in. Finally, it is not, in my judgment, extravagant 
to say that the average yield of wheat raised last year was 
fully 35 bushels to the acre. I would not put it below this 
figure, and some people believe it ran above. It is going to 
be very profitable to raise wheat in this country. 

"I do not see why a poor farmer, having a quarter-s:c- 
tion of land here, could not, by ordinary prudence in manage- 
ment, not only be independent, but make good headway in a i^w 
years toward comparative wealth. There is certainly a great 
future for this region, and for the men who are lucky enough 
to secure farms for themselves before these lands rise much in 
value, as they must soon do." 

An able and scientific writer sa}-s: '■ It is a known fact 
that the most productive and enduring wheat lands of our 
continent, lie west of the Rocky Mountains. They have the 
largest proportions of the po'.ash and phosphates which -nour- 
ish the cereals. It has been stated by a well-known geologist 
that, during the six distinctly noted volcanic overflows, the 
ashes, which were carried largely by the prevailing winds 
eastward into the bays and lakes which formerly occupied the 
great in'.erior basin, mingled with other sediment to form the 
deep deposits which now constitute the soils of those valleys 
and high prairie lands. It is eas}^ to infer that the excess of 
alkali in spots, results from the drainage of this substance 
from the hills. Every year the crops seem to increase in 



22 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

value and amount. The hills and dry saj^e-brush plains have 
rewarded the eultivator. It is known that every acre touched 
by water becomes luxuriant with cereals and fruits. 

"It is known that an ocean of aerial moisture floats over 
these ret^.ons from the vast western ocean. It needs only a 
cooler to deposit the dews. Every field or blade of grass 
or grain acts as a cooler. 

" The fields of winter grain, started by early rains or 
melting snows, provide the vegetation, which in summer de- 
posits enough of this aerial moisture to perfect their growth 
until the harvest. The deep plowing loosens the soil so as to 
absorb the air loaded with moisture, which grows cool enough 
to leave its moisture about the roots of the plant. Thus the 
lands that have for ages abounded in the bunch grass, which 
is now wasting away before the increase of flocks and herds, 
can be restored by the plow, and the choice cereals, wheat, 
oats, barley, and corn, with orchards about every farm-house." 

Hundreds of other experiences on the Pacific slope 
could be given, but these are enough; they reflect the expe- 
rience of thousands. Are they not satisfactory? How could 
they be better ? Compare them with the average yield of 
wheat in the principal Atlantic States for 1880. Maine's aver- 
age yield, per acre, 14 bushels; New Hampshire, 14; Ver- 
mont, 17; Massachusetts, 22; Connecticut, 13; New York, 19; 
New Jersey, 15; Pennsylvania, 15; Delaware, 13; Maryland, 
13; Virginia, 7.2; North Carolina, 6.5; South Carolina, 5.5; 
Georgia, 7; Alabama, 7.3; Mississippi, 6.8; Texas, 16; Ar- 
kansas, 6; Tennessee, 5; West Virginia, 11.5; Kentucky, 9.3; 
Ohio, 18; Michigan, 18.3; Indiana, 16; Illinois, 13.6; Wiscon- 
sin, 12.4; Minnesota, 12; Iowa, 9.4; Missouri, ii; Kansas 
16.3; Nebraska, 1 3. 1. 

It will be seen by these figures that the yield of wheat in 
the most favored of the Atlantic States falls much below the 
yield here, and even then it depends on the use of costly 
manures. As the production depends i n conditions, so the 
value of wheat when garnered ready for market depends on 
conditions, facilities for transportation, etc. In Nebraska, 
where the transportation is arbitrary and limited, the average 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 23 

price per bushel is 42 cents; in Kansas, 45; in Dakota, 46; in 
Minnesota, 50; in Iowa, 55; and in Missouri 62. Here it will 
average 63 cents, which is a third more than in Nebraska, and 
higher than an}-- of the western Atlantic States. 

In the Pacific States and Territories there are 500,006 
square miles, or 320,000,000 acres of tillable land. Setting 
aside one-half, or 160,000,000 acres of this for oats, rye, corn, 
barley, and other farm products, and presuming that the 
remaining 160,000,000 acres were devoted to raising wheat at 
the reasonable average of 20 bushels to the acre, we would 
produce 3,200,000,000 bushels, worth, at 63 cents a bushel, 
$2,016,000,000; and to move it would require a train of cars 
35,058 miles in length, long enough to girdle the earth; or it 
would load the entire merchant marine of the world, sailing 
and steam vessels, a dozen times over. 

In contrast to this we are reminded that the average 
acreage given to wheat raising in all England, from 1867 to 
1870, was 3,836,890 acres; but there has been a gradual falling 
off every year since then, and last year only 2,553,092 acres 
were apportioned to wheat, an area about equal to one of 
our little valleys skirting the Columbia or nestling among the 
foot-hills up in Tulare. 

Cattle. — The live stock business in the United States 
has recently increased to enormous proportions. It is esti- 
mated that there is now invested in cattle alone, $1,106,715,- 
703. When to this is added all the industries and interests 
dependent on the cattle trade, these figures would be im- 
mensely increased. 

In 1880, the estimated value of the meat, hides, and 
other proceeds of animals slaughtered in the United States, 
is fixed at $800,000,000. 

West of the Mississippi there are 22,000,000 head of 
cattle, with an estimated value of $533,650,875. The busi- 
ness is chiefly carried on b}' cattle companies. One asso- 
ciation alone owns 1,000,000 head of cattle, 1,000,000 head 
of sheep, and 500,000 head of horses, among which are to 
be found some of the best-bred animals in the world. The 
company also owns and controls 8,500,000 acres of land. 



24 THE NEW EMFjRE. ' 

The total value of stock and land is set down p.t $68,250,000. 
and the company employs 2,000 men as herders. Another 
association has 450,000 head of cattle, 50,000 head of horses, 
30,000 sheep, and 4,500,000 acres of land, with a total valu- 
ation of $21,500,000. Another company owns 800,000 head 
of cattle, 250,000 head of horses, and as many sheep, with a 
grazing area covering 15,000,000 acres of land. And there 
are many other companies owning immense herds, and con- 
trolling millions of dollars of capital. 

On the Pacific slope there are 640,000,000 acres of ex- 
cellent grazing land. The area required to pasture a million 
head of cattle depends entirely upon the quality of the grass 
and water. Here where our indigenous grasses are unusually 
nutritious and sweet, and the water surpassingly pure, and where 
the herds have abundant shade in the summer and shelter 
in the winter, a much greater percentage of cattle can be 
carried, and the losses much less than in localities where such 
advantages are not enjoyed. Utilizing the 640,000,000 acres 
of grazing land in the New Empire, allowing 5 acres to the 
animal, or even 20 acres, and our herds would number 152,- 
000,000 head, and at an all round average of $25.00 per head, 
their value would b: $3,800,000,000, an e.Kcess of the total 
amount now invested within the American domain. 

Lumber. — There are 300,000 square miles of forest in 
the New Empire, a considerable portion of which is very 
superior. The trees not only stand thickly on the ground, 
but they are of immense size and height, a single tree fre- 
quently making five, ten, and fifteen thousand feet of clear 
lumber. By a little calculation the reader will be able to 
form some estimate of the amount of lumber and wealth 
contained in this 192,000,000 acres of timber. 

A number of large saw-mills are at work in various 
places convenient to tide water, mortising into the forest and 
sending out lumber to the markets of the world. As an 
illustration of the magnitude of these milling enterprises, 
take the Pugct Mill Company. It has a capital of $2,000,000, 
and has mills at Port Gamble, Port Ludlow and Utsaladdy, 
whose output in 1884 was 57,000,000 feet of lumber, worth 



THE ' NE W EMPIRE. ' 25 

$741,000; shingles, 2,700,000, valued at $8,000; lat.:s, 18,- 
000,000, valued at $36,000; pickets, 225,000, valued at ', 2,700 ; 
wool slats, 60,000, valued at $360; and 3,000 piles val'x-d at 
$11,500, making a total value of $800,410. The Hanson 
Mill Company has a capital of $1,000,000; output last year, 
33.000, value, $426,000; spars, 600, value, $12,500; laths, 
6,500,000, value, $16,250; pickets, 350,000, value, $2,800; 
wool slats, 150, value, $900; total value, $458,450, with the 
addition of $40,000 as the product of the planing mill, sw fil- 
ing the total to $498,450. The Hanson Mill has since been 
enlarged, so that its output will now about equal the Puget 
Mill Company. These illustrations are sufficient. I do not 
know the total number of saw-mills on the coast, but there 
are a great many. 

Lumber, like wheat, is a staple, cash commodity, and all 
these large mills, steadily manufacturing to supply foreign 
demand, bring back in return millions of money to be dis- 
tributed annually among the people of* the Pacific Coast. 

The Census Department at Washington, in its forestry 
bulletins, announced that in both the upper and lower penin- 
sulas of Michigan there remained of standing white pine 
timber, suitable for market, but 35,000,000,000 feet, board 
measure, and that in the census year of 1880 there had been 
cut in the State 4,396,21 1,000 feet, requiring only 8 years 
at this rate to exhaust the supply; that in Wisconsin there 
were standing 41,000,000,000 feet, with a cut of about 3,000,- 
000,000 feet for that year, leaving a supply that would last 
but 14 years; that in Minnesota there vvere remaining 8,170,- 
000,000 feet, and that 541,000,000 feet were cut in the census 
year, leaving a supply for i 5 years, and that at this rate the 
supply of white pine lumber would be exhausted in these 
3 States in the brief period of about 12 years, the 
question of the future supply of this most valuable timber 
became serious to the building world. The late James Little, 
of Montreal, in 1882, said of the supply of white pine in 
Canada that he had consulted with the best authorities an^. 
was persuaded that, at the rate of cutting then going on, the 
whole supply of the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, New 



26 THE NEW EAIPIKE. 

Brunswick and Nova Scotia would be used up in about lo 
years. According to these estimates, then, the supply of 
white pine on the Atlantic slope will soon be exhausted anb 
the mechanic arts will have to look to other fields for their 
supply of wood and timber, and that supply will be furnisheb 
by the forest of the Pacific Coast. 

Red and white fir, pine, spruce, cedar, cottonwood, balm, 
oak, alder, ash, and maple are generally found in the principal 
coast forests, but California is the home of the redwood. 
The total production and sales of redwood in the State for 
1885, from the several counties, were as follows: — 

Del Norte County, feet , 4,050,000 

Humboldt 02, 300,000 

Mendocino 74,050,000 

Sonoma 4,400,000 

Santa Cruz 40,000,000 

Total feet ^04,800,000 

Of the sales in Santa Cruz County, it is estimated that 
35,000,000 feet were taken for consumption in that county, 
while the other 5,000,000 feet were shipped to points 
south. The other counties sent to the Bay of San Francisco 
1 13,000,000, besides 32,150,000 feet to Southern California, 
and 19,650,000 feet were sold for consumption in the counties 
where cut. The shipments of California redwood to foreign 
ports in 1885 were as follows: — 

Mexico, Central and South America, feet 950,000 

Islands of the Pacific 2,650,000 

Australia 5,950,000 

Europe , 650,000 

Total feet 10, 200, 000 

The [)ine sales from redwood mills for the year aggre- 
gate 17,800,000 feet. This makes the total sales for the year 
232,800,000 feet. The quantity of redwood on hand January 
I, 1886, was 41,350,000 feet, against 34,040,000 feet on the 
1st of January, 1885, but the demand is increasing as its uses 
multiply, and its value and beauty arc demonstrated. It is 
beginning to be largely used in the manufacture of the most 
elegant patterns of furniture, and the roots and buhl of the 
redwood tree are now comini: into extensive use for veneer- 



28 THE A'EIF EMPIRE. 

ing purposes, furnishing a more beautiful vene r than mahog- 
any, rosewood or wahiut. A machine has lately been in- 
vented and patented for slicing the roots and buhls for 
veneering purposes, and a piece of root no larger than a man 
may carry on his shoulder brings $20.00 in Europe. 

Iron. — Iron, coal and petroleum are among the most 
useful of minerals. The Pacific Coast deposits are large, and 
are simply waiting the key of industry to unlock the granite 
doors and send them out into the commerce of the world. 
They, with kindred topics, shall be noted further along. 



CHAPTER III. 

VINEYARDS AND ORCHARDS. 

IT is a law of nature that fruits reach their greatest perfec- 
tion in a region having the most sunshine. Equable, or 
even monotonously mild temperature, like that of England, 
will not produce fruits in perfection, unless it is supple- 
mented by clear skies and the fervent kisses of the sun, these, 
with the absence of severe cold in the winter, complete the 
conditions that make a fruit country; and it is a Avonderful test 
and testimony of the wisdom which stocked the earth with 
capacities for man's use and benefit, that where these solar 
and other conditions appear in partnership,' there the volcanoes 
have enriched the soil with the very marrow of the earth, and 
crumbling granite has added the str-ength needed to make it 
fitted for all fruit production. 

In no part of the United States, and in no greater degree 
elsewhere over the globe, do we find so evenly poised these 
forces as in the New Empire, ai>d hence it is that the whole 
coast, from the southern line of California to the slopes that 
guard Puget Sound, is of proved capacity for orchards or vine- 
yards. 

In Oregon and the North the apple is produced in the 
greatest perfection, and there the pear in all its luscious charms 
reaches a size and beauty S'ldom equaled. 

In tjie East the only fruit to be relied on for crops is the 



."iO THE jSEW EMPJRE. 

apple, 'and it has centers of the best production. The New 
York- and Michigan apples will be the favorites in the mar- 
ket al\va\ s, over the fr it of Ohio or Pennsylvania, though 
the apple grows from Maine to Minnesota, and the line of 
trees planted in the wilderness, from the Mohawk to the 
Ohio, by Apple Seed John, has expanded into thousands of 
orchards; yet the two States named hold to first excellence 
and their production is the favorite. This Pacific fruit region 
has the same peculiarity of premium locations, and Oregon 
has first place in the excellence of her apples. Though the 
Territories and Nevada and California have and will always 
crown many a feast with the wholesome fruit, the label, " Ore- 
gon Apples " will attract the consumer and bring the top of 
the market. 

But it must be confessed that we might have apples and 
pears and plums in perfection elsewhere unknown and yet 
fail to attract any attention to the resources of our horticult- 
ure. Those fruits grow in every State in the Union, and 
while we might claim primacy in their production, we share it 
with all the rest. The unique value of our fruit region is, 
that it produces what grows nowhere else on the continent 
in any form or any degree in commercial volume. 

In California is the center of the only genuine wine- 
producing area on the continent. Here and here alone are 
faithfully reproduced the conditions for viticulture which have 
made the wealth of Southern Europe. There five centuries 
have been devoted to the refinement of wine production. 
Here the origin of the industry and its rivalry of Europe are 
only twenty years apart. In that time we have developed 
hocks and clarets of defined character and as favorite with 
consumers as the Rhines of Germany and the Chateau Reds 
of France. In this wine-raising region there are choice spots, 
some of them already discovered and many yet to be. Here 
some thrill of sunshine, some subtle chemistry in the propt;r- 
ties of the soil, or, may be, some balm in the breath of the 
winds imparts to the grape a subtle excellence. Who can tell 
what it is ? V/hen the quality of water used in tempering 
the steel of edged tools is proved to be the cause of excel- 



THE NEW EMPIRE.' 31 

lence that no fire, nor forging, nor polish, nor skill can impart 
or take away, by what sensitive scale shall we measure the 
ineffable inspiration that gives varying excellence to the ^'uice 
of the grape? This "spotted" tendency is one of the high 
evidences of excellence in a wine country. We drink the 
Johannisberger of commerce and call it good, and so it is, 
but the real Johannisberger is hardly known in trade, for its 
production is limited to a vineyard of only forty acres on the 
Metternich Estate in Nassau. Old Metternich, whose diplo- 
macy set the European fashion after the downfall of Napo- 
leon, knew nothing of wine-making, and one day ordered the 
stones gathered up and taken off the ground of the vine\-ard. 
That year his grapes made no wine, the juice* sulked in 
the must. His superintendent told him that the wine had 
gone with the stones, and on restoring them the wine came 
back as excellent as before. Who shall tell why i All 
around, the same sort of stones are in other vineyards, but 
the wine is inferior. W^ho can tell why a few acres at Dijon 
should produce a still wine as mild as a dew-drop to the taste,, 
yet with a subtlety of spirit that gives it almost the action 
of absinthe ? And why do vines at Rheims, so few that they 
are numbered and counted, produce a cream wine, for which, 
the gods of Olympus would have quit their nectar and the 
Wassailers of Valhalla their mighty meid ? 

Already it is noted that the same grape, planted in dif- 
ferent localities, varies in its qualities, and, finally, California 
will offer as great variety in the individuality and excellence 
of its wines as Europe. Over three hundred varieties of 
grapes are grown here, and careful experiment is transplant- 
ing new sorts continually, for which the whole world, from 
Peru to Algiers, is put under tribute. 

All this region of fruit tree and vine is dotted with or- 
chard and vineyard. The statistics of horticulture are diffi- 
cult of collection, because while you are reducing vine and 
tree to a census, enterprise is pushing the frontier of the area 
they occupy, and the counting is never done. In Egypt 
where the date palm furnishes fuel, food and timber, is not 
of rapid growth, and is cherished by its owner, as the Bedouin 



32 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

guards his horse, every tree is tagged and taxed, and its age 
officially preserved. 

The apple trees in California number about 2,500,000; 
in- Oregon, 1,500,000; peach trees in Califorf^ia, 2,000,000; in 
Oregon, 50,000; California has 50,000 fiy-trees, 2,000,000 
orange, 250,000 lemon. By the census of 1880 the total fruit 
product of Oregon reached a value of $547,000; of California, 
$3,000,000. In the latter the value has, since then, doubled, 
and the capital invested in the fruit interest of California is 
$50,000,000. 

For the apricot of California the demand constantly 
presses the supply. In its fresh state it is admired amongst 
the early fruits shipped East, and as it resembles the pear in 
ripening after it is picked, it is a valuable shipping fruit. 
Canned or dried, it has the world for a market, so it is not 
surprising that orchardists in this State have realized as high 
as $1,500 per acre for this crop. The nectarine is a luscious 
hybrid, which joins the best qualities of peach and plum, and 
is here more perfect in quality, and bears greater crops than 
elsewhere on the continent. 

The dried fruits of this region have long been famous for 
their flavor and quality, and every year adds to the range of 
their market, and the refinement of the processes by which 
they are prepared. 

The raisin industry of California was founded in 1872, 
when about a thousand boxes found their way to market. 
In 1 88 1 the production had risen to 160,000 boxes, and in 
1885 to about a half million. Our sunny and rainless climate, 
the tendency of our grapes to develop sugar, all join to 
make this industry one of our standard activities. Here an 
area of 20,000 square miles is specially adapted to producing 
raisins. It is a common experience of vineyardists to secure 
a net profit on their raisin crop of $250 per acre, and 20 
acres of raisin grapes bring an income that cannot be wrung 
from a half section in some of the Atlantic States. 

The wine yield of California varies with the seasons, but 
now seldom falls below 10,000,000 gallons, for which there is 
a ready and appreciative market. 



34 THE ^E W EMPIRE. 

Our brandy product is increasing, and some brands 
distilled here have beaten the world in a competition hotly 
contested. But why dwell longer upon the horticultural 
superiority of a region which tells its own story; where the 
currants are as large as cherries elsewhere grown, and the 
cherries arc as large as the plums of the East; where all the 
stone fruits, and the pomegranate, the melon, and the Jap- 
anese persimmon, which grows to the size of an apple, and is 
called "The fruit of the gods," the custard apple of Burmah, 
will grow side by side, — a land where the orange, lemon and 
lime ripen their fruit clear up to the 41st degree of latitude; 
where the olive is gracing the hills and throwing its oil in 
commercial quantities from San Diego to Sonoma, — such a 
land wears its certificate of excellence as an outer garment to 
be seen of all men, and not as a hidden grace to inflame the 
fancy by a chance disclosure. 

In all this area the English walnut and the almond, the 
leading nuts of commerce, grow as if indigenous, and our wal- 
nuts and our wines are kissed into perfection by the same 
kind sunshine. 

Difficulties are besetting the centuries-old orchards, vine- 
yards and olive groves of Europe. The world must more and 
more resort to the produce of our virgin lands for its supply of 
these articles, which fill so formidable a place in the diet 
and trade of the work!. Our own country calls for such sup- 
plies for 60,000,000 of people, and did they all resort to us 
now the demand would doubly overgo our own capacity to 
supply. In these briefly narrated facts we see the solidity of 
the horticultural interests (T the New Empire. Was there 
ever such a land since Moses looked upon virgin Palestine 
and found his fancy enchanted by its spreading meadows, 
its dewy vineyards, the yellow wheat that gilt its plains, the 
beauty of its flowers, and the plenty that its generous soil 
gave up to its people? 

Here we have all this, and flocks and herds, with gold 
and silver mounted mr)untains standing guard over the won- 
ders of the land; while the fish-filled waters babble their 
boast of rivalry in the task of feeding millions without calling 
for a miraculous drauijht of the nets. 




HOMES OF THE LUiF DA\ELLERS 



36 THE XEW EMPIRE. 

CHAPTER W . 

MONEY, ITS NATURE AND USES. 

" Put monej' in thy purse." — Shakespeare. 

"The love of money is the root of all evil." — The Bible. 

NO people liave a greater practical or sentimental interest 
in money than those of California. The discovery of 
precious metals in this State wrought a financial revolu- 
tion in the world. It prevented the demonetizing of gold by 
our own Congress; and by greatly adding to the coinage of 
that metal, affected values to a great-er stability, and wove 
the brilliant dream of Jackson and Benton into realization b}- 
making possible the payment of Government debts in " * * 
gold, yellow and molten, hammered and relied." The silver 
store, long dependent on uncertain Mexico, got a like impulse 
from the discovery of the Nevada and Arizona deposits, and 
together the two metals have made California to drive out of 
fancy and even from fiction, the figure of Golconda and of 
Ormus and of Ind. Ophir, that ga\-e up the gold that gilt 
the temple, is a tradition. California is an enduring fact, and 
from her mother lode and its ribs for generations to come, 
hardy miners will be digging and milling gold to make mone}' 
for others to spend. By use of this store, generously poured 
into the world's lap, wars will be fought, soldiers paid, states- 
men bribed. It will enable States to broaden their phylactery 
by extending their boundaries. It will arm and man n^avics 
to test the dominion of the sea. It will be the motive that 
sends men into the wilderness to redeem and plant the glebe 
lands, that for the crops grown, the}- may get money. As 
the bride blushes at the altar, not the least pleasant antici- 
pation of the delights of her new estate is the jingle of the 
coin her husband will throw into her lap. So, too, amongst 
the sorrows of the son as he buries his sire, there will creep 
in enough mental arithmetic to figure up the value in chinking 
coin of his share of the family estate. Every cradle, robe and 
shroud represents money, and dollars and dimes are woven 
into the suit of can\-as spread by the ship to propel her 



THE NE W EMPIRE. ■ 37 

through the waters, and they are in the anchor that shall 
hold her fast when the voyage is ended. Without money, 
commerce would be a rude barter, life would be without 
elegance, industry without variety, man without a motive. 
Where was the genesis of money, of a medium of exchange 
and a standard of value? David A. Wells has fancied it in 
his " Robinson Crusoe's Money;" but without refining upon 
definitions, money is anything into which you can convert 
your surplus labor and with which you can procure the surplus 
labor of another. A season's toil has produced wheat enough 
to feed you and some to spare. Another man has produced 
enough wool to make his own clothes and some to spare. 
The overplus in each case is the surplus labor. So A sells 
his wheat, that is, converts it into something that will buy 
B's wool after it has been transmuted by manufacture, and 
that something which enables this exchange of surplus labor 
is called mone)-. No matter when it originated, if the world 
were swept by a besom to-day, and repeopled b\' a primitive 
race to-morrow to whom we would be as dim, distant and 
mysterious as the mound-builders are to us, that race would 
follow our foot-steps in commerce and the evolution of 
finance, because it would have the same wants and appetites 
as we have, and instinctively seek their gratification by the 
same means that we have used. In the cuneiform writings 
left by the stylus of many a Babylonian scribbler, we find 
the history of the Babylonian Rothschilds " Egibi & Son " 
who discounted notes, drove bargains and loaned money to 
the king, long before Abraham lost faith in the wooden gods 
he had whittled out with his jack-knife, and while Greece 
was a blank, Rome was a resort of coney-hunting savages, 
ani-l what is now Europe was less known than we know the 
planets which are our goodly company whirling around the 
sun in inferior and superior circles. 

As one after another the wheat-raising regions of the 
world have been subdued to tillage and have poured their 
crops into commerce, the result has furnished ground for 
speculation by political and social economists and financiers. 
So the corn and cotton belts of the world, as ^hey contract 



38 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

by exhaustion or expand by discoven' and experiment, are 
the objects of endurinj^ attention. 

But the products of these regions and the industries they 
support, differ widely from the precious metals, because they 
fluctuate and their value ebbs and flows, while gold and silver 
are the measure of that value. The moment they are freed 
from impingcm.ent with the baser substances in which they 
grow, they are value. They don't shrink and swell with 
plenty of famine in any part of the world. They are always 
in good demand, equally prized, equally desirable and equally 
capable of benefitin j;^ mankind. 

After his Italian campaign, the great Napoleon was 
accused of sacrilege because in looting churches, his soldiers 
had despoiled shrine and altar of the images of the saints 
cast in silver and gold. Taxed with this, the Corsiccn 
answered that he had melted the saints inti money in order 
that they might go up and down the world doing good as was 
the duty of saints. 

As the precious metals have their inalienable qualities 
and functions, how much more should their production attract 
the attention of economists and financiers than do the perish- 
ing crops whose value they measure? So fixed has the public 
heart become in favor of gold and silver mone\-, that we 
tear the sounds and sense and orthography of our language 
for terms to distinguish paper currency that is not redeemable 
in coin; " Shin-plaster" and " Red dog" are some of the names 
by which such currency has been known. Paper money, to 
be of genuine utility, must be of representative value and 
convertible into coin of one or the other of these metals 
produced b> our mines. The precious metal product of 
this coast has given to our region its pre-eminent position. 
When an ex-premier of England stood before the Dons and 
Proctors of Edinburgh University for inauguration as Lord 
Rector, he opened his address with a figure in which Cali- 
fornia was used as a synonym for wealth. The non-exhaus- 
tion of our mines, the discovery of new processes which, 
by hitching j:hemistry and mechanism together, attack and 
reduce refractory ores or so cheapen the reduction of low 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 39^ 

grades as to make their working profitable, has had the effect 
of steadily maintaining our bullion output and convincing the 
world of the practical inexhaustibility of our deposits. 

What eye has penetrated the depths yet under the feet of 
the deep miner? The earth is yet to be bored to greater 
depths before we go as far as men have gone for coal, and 
when we have sunk the shafts there is every assurance that 
the result will prove the region to be like a good watch, full 
jeweled in every hole. 

In gold and silver we still lead the world, as official esti- 
mates in another column will show. 

Russia regards her gold fields as the apple of her eye. 
The resources of imperial science and of imperial tyranny com- 
bine to urge them to the highest production, and yet, with an 
almost languid attention to our mines, we lead both her and 
Eng and. In the thirty-five years preceding 1874, which 
includes the greatest output of the California and Australian 
mines, the world's yield of gold averaged $96,0(X),000 per year; 
so that with the comparative inattention to our mines here 
and the measurable withdrawal of interest in those of Aus- 
tralia, the yield fell only $14,000,000 short of the average of 
that period in which the placers were yielding their nuggets 
and dust to the rocker. 



CHAPTE R V 



GOLD AND SILVER. 



THE romance of gold and silver mining is one of the most 
alluring chapters of the world's history. Gold and silver 
have stood in all literature as the synonyms for desira- 
bility. The Spaniards encouraged Columbus, the Genoese 
sailor, to embark in the experiment of seeking a new route 
to the Indies, because their fanc\' was inflamed by the vision 
of great spoil in the precious metals With him, the incen- 
tive was scientific; he was hungry for geography. They 
wanted gold. When his voyage to India, sailing west to 



40 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

reach the east, was interrupted by an unknown continent, 
his followers and the Government, under whose patronage he 
was protected, began the hunt for gold in the ne\v country. 

To find gold was the hope of De Soto, of Balboa, of 
Cortez and Pizarro, and gold and silver soon lo ided the 
Spanish galleons and they, in turn, were hunted on the high 
seas by British war ships in what amounted to actual pirac\-, 
though dignified by the name of war. 

The desire for gold was soon planted amongst the fore- 
most motives of our English-speaking people. It enlisted 
the pens and tongues of statesmen and economists. It 
affected profoundly the financial policy of this Republic, and 
to-day the issues that arise in gold and silver, their relative 
volume, the extent of their coinage, their intrinsic ratio, 
swallow up all other public questions. 

The discovery of gold in California populated the coast 
more rapidly than would have been possible by any other 
means. If men had been promised immortality as a reward 
for the pains and perils of the journey here, they would have 
risked a refusal. But the temporalities promised by gold 
were an irresistible temptation. All of our other means of 
prosperity, our fields, orchards and vineyards, our wine and 
oil would now be the unproved elements in the clods of our 
valleys, had not gold brought to us a population in whose 
needs and industrial evolution were the germs of these great 
cognate productions. The consumption of the precious metals 
has kept pace with their discovery and production. There are 
placers yet un worked; there are quartz veins yet undevel- 
oped; there are billions of gold yet to be mined from the 
Rio Grande to the Yukon. 

The gold and silver we have already produced has 
reclaimed tiie Pacific side of this continent. It has been 
the cause of all other foundations, of agriculture, horticulture 
and manufactories. It has built cities, dug canals for irriga- 
tion, dredged rivers for navigation and constructed the lines 
of transcontinental railroads. It has established steamship 
lines, created commerce, wrested islands from barbarism and 
redeemed hundreds of thousands from poverty, and estab- 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 41 

lished them in comfort within easy reach of affluence. Nearly 
four billions of these metals have been taken from the mines, 
but the work is hardly begun. Using the experience 
already gained and applying it to ground untouched, to 
ledges un worked, there are billions yet to sparkle in the sun- 
light and jingle in the pockets of the people, to fill national 
treasuries, to turn the wheels of manufactories and spread the 
sails of commerce. The next thirty years will more than 
triplicate on this coast and in this country, the results of 
mineral wealth taken from our mines. This wealth is not to 
be shrunk by tariffs; it is not corroded by rust; it defies the 
gnawing tooth of time; even when the robber steals it there 
is only a diversion in its direction, for, through him, it again 
reaches circulation and fulfills its mission. For this coast 
the production of the precious metals means everything. It 
invests an idle population in an enchanting and profitable 
pursuit; it diverts labor from the production to the con- 
sumption of food, and makes better prices for the yield of 
the husbandman. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CURBSTONE BROKERS. 



NO good thing can exist without drawbacks. The .sun and 
warmth which generate the luscious flavors of fruits, give 
life also to the insect which preys upon the tree. Health 
and strength tempt to those excesses which bring both to 
untimely shipwreck. Even love walks lightly through the 
bowers in whose shadows jealousy, the counter-passion, 
gnaws its heart. The rich mineral resources of this coast 
which it would seem should always have brought wealth to 
those hardy and adventurous men who search them out, have 
proved the ruin of thousands through those parasites called 
"Curbstone Brokers." The prospector, developer or owner 
of a mining property appears in San Francisco and falls into 
the hands of a broker to whom the worth or worthlessness of 
the property is a secondary consideration. His method is 



42 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

as fixed as pocket-picking. B\- manipulation and coaxing, 
playing upon avarice and cupidity," he schemes for the control 
of the "mine." Getting a bond to cover it, he organizes a 
company and proceeds to capitalize the property, issue stock, 
and squeeze margins out of it by means foul or fair. One 
of these leeches went to a lithographer for a book of blank 
certificates of stock. 'Where is your property located?" 
asked the artist. " ' Damfino' — it's no difference anyway," 
replied the teredo of the street. " What is its name? " " Oh 
call it anything you like, but hurry up; I want to get the stock 
off" On the banks of Newfoundland to which the cod-fishers 
resort, no bait is wasted on the hook; a few scraps of white- 
fleshed clams are cast overboard and the fish rise to the feast, 
when the hooks, ragged out with strips of white cotton cloth, 
are cast in and taken by the fish, which are soon flopping on deck. 
So do these fishers of men who wring sorrow out of mines 
that should yield only satisfaction, profit, and an access of 
life's pleasures. Into the waters of speculation were cast the 
profitable Comstocks and consolidated properties which, by 
temporary investment, raised thousands to affluence; but they 
were followed by the rag stock certificates that represented a 
partnership of cupidity and scoundrelism, but were snapped 
up by the crowd that made no discrimination between reality 
and unreality. Your broker of the curb usually represents 
himself as with money, position and influence, or he has a 
circle of old-timers who are his rich friends, whom he inspires 
with confidence. He knows Jones, Flood, Mackay and Fair, 
who look to him for avenues in which to invest their money. 
Under these and kindred representations, a bond for a term of 
months is obtained, and then the time passes, weeks melt 
away. They are seeking the riglit men for directors; their 
wealthy clients are very particular; and,so the smooth lie runs, 
while the owner of the propert}-, buoyed for a while on expec- 
tation and fed on falsehood, finds his expenses eating into his 
pockets and delay eating into his heart. Finally lying fails to 
explain the delay. The victim breaks the meshes of his net 
and investigates his way to the discovery that the broker is a 
penniless ad\'enturer, as poor in morals as in pocket, whose 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 43 

only capital is falsehood, and his only merit the mastery of 
the art of persuasion. The owner came to the city to sell a 
mine. He discovers that he is sold instead. Now begins a 
struggle to recover what has been practically stolen from him. 
The broker insists that he has put mone}- into searching for a 
market for the property. He has claims, liens and offsets 
against his undischarged trust under the bond. Put to legal 
proof he at last threatens to prevent the profitable capitali- 
zation of the property by any one else, using to that end his 
"influence on the street." If the owner quits him finally, the 
pest does not quit the owner, but spies upon his movements 
dogs his daily walk, and by every art known to criminal fin- 
anciering, works to prevent the legitimate placing of the prop- 
erty where it would return solid dividends upon the hope 
invested in it. So the mining interest is hampered, the bull- 
ion output is limited, and the reputation of the stock and the 
fair name of the cit}''s financial standing is tarnished b)' these 
illicit and immoral brokers. Many of them are broken-down 
politicians who began at an honorable deviation and fell from 
one treachery and broken trust to another, till they were 
dumped on the streets to live by their wits. They are the 
companions in declension to the women who begin in the roses 
and raptures of vice, the illicit pets of lascivious luxury, but 
who fall step by step to depend upon the occasional spoliation 
of the stranger picked up on the street. 

True, amongst the brokers are men of untarnished honor, 
forced by circumstances to a repulsive association; but this 
inconsiderable leaven cannot make the whole lump wholesome, 
nor minister a cure of the damage inflicted upon our mineral 
interests by the vicious members of their guild. 

There are unworthy men in all callings, and even the 
learned professions are not free from them. Law and physic 
shelter pretenders, and even in the house of God, the well- 
disguised hypocrite may break the bread of life for a time 
undetected. The criminally inclined seek the company of the 
virtuous as ambush for their designs, and so it has passed 
into a habit when a banker defaults or a fiduciary agent dis- 
appears with trust funds, we ask involuntarily, " What Sun- 



44 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

day-school did he superintend ? " Emancipated from the bad 
name given it by operations of the ballooning. broker, quartz 
and placer mining has a great part yet to play in th° perma- 
nent prosperity of this coast. By refinement of processes, 
thousands of acres of placer ground will give up their treasures, 
and refractory ores that have defied reduction will yield at 
last, and many a block of stocks now hidden in forgotten 
places and thought to be worthless will enrich the owner who 
has damned and forgotten his investment. 

It is not only personal thrift, but is the' sign of good 
citizenship, to foster the legitimate rewards of our mines; 
while it is only good morals to chase the sinister and lying 
broker off the street. 



CHAPTER VII 

DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



FROM the date of the discovery of gold in California, 
mining has been steadily and for many years rapidly 
gaining public confidence, and now it is justly regarded as a 
legitimate, safe business — one of the most important indus- 
tries of civilization. When that discovery was made, the great 
mass of the people were incredulous, regarded the announce- 
ment as a sort of "Arabian Nights" or the tale of "Aladdin's 
Lamp " revamped and published under a new title. It is a 
historical fact, however, that since that day California has 
yielded $1,000,000,000 in gold. Astounding as this statement 
may be, it is strictly true. The same incredulity was mani- 
fested about the discovery of gold in Australia, but, notwith- 
standing that, the island continent has produced i^200,ooo.- 
ooo in gold, and the grand total productions of bullion from 
all sources since 1848 amount to $5,862,165,000. 

When the silver mines of Nevada were discovered, no 
one believed, not even Comstock, the discoverer, nor even 
contemplated the vast treasures stored away in those inhos- 
pitable mountains; but Nevada has sent out $350,000,000 in 
silver, and the production of the United States since 1858 has 




SITE OF THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



46 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

been %'j'j6,']'^o,6'jo. Then came Colorado, Montana, Idaho, 
Utah Arizona, and Dakota, each having to stem the tide of 
popular distrust, to prove by actual demonstration the exist- 
ence of precious metals in their river beds and mountain 
ranges; but they have given their millions to the commerce of 
the world. The total bullion yield of the new empire since 
1848 reaches the enormous sum of $2,607,006,786. 

The early pioneers, the brave, the intelligent, the indus- 
trious pioneers of those mineral regions, were invariably 
looked upon by the incredulous as voluntary exiles, sacrific- 
ing home, friends and the comforts of civilization for the wild 
life of a frontiersman. But the results, the magnificent re- 
sults which these pioneers have achieved, the victories they 
have won, and the long list of those who now count their coin 
by the million, gathered from these newly-found mines, is a 
proof which the world is compelled to accept of the wisdom 
of their course. 

In the face of this enormous yield of precious metals 
and all that has been achieved through this yield, much is 
said by a certain class about the money that has been ex- 
pended and the losses sustained in mining enterprises. True, 
mines have been purchased at almost fabulous prices, but, in 
nearly every instance, when the purchasers exercised the same 
judgment that careful business men would use in other trans- 
actions of equal magnitude, they have received rich returns 
for their investments. 

During the year 1884 there were 5,582 failures by those 
engaged in other callings in the United States alone, with 
total liabilities amounting to $81,155,932. This sum, the 
liabilities for one year in the United States alone, is greater 
than that of all the failures in mining enterprises from the 
landing of Noah's Ark to the present day, whilst the losses, 
through the failure of banking and other business houses in 
Europe and America, have been simply appalling. But this 
appears to be regarded by the anti-mining class as the legiti- 
mate effects of natural causes. Millions may be lost through 
corrupt bank officials, scheming railroad magnates, or those 
engaged in commercial pursuits, without apparently shaking 



THE XEW EMPIRE. 47 

their confidence or provoking a feeling of distrust; but, if a 
S.Q.\\ thousand dollars are absorbed in a mining enterprise 
without returning at least double the amount invested during 
the first three months, the investor proceeds to get up a gen- 
eral howl, and whines and sniffles about it as though an 
irreparable calamity had befallen him. 

But losses are not only sustained through the failure of 
banking and commercial houses and bankrupt railroads, but 
bankrupt States and municipalities. From a statement in a 
recent number of the Money Market Reviezv it was shown 
that English financiers had advanced b}- loans to the sev^eral 
bankrupt States of Europe and South America upwards of 
^^600,000,000 or $3,000,000,000 in twenty-five years, and at 
that time the market quotations of the stock gave it a value 
of a little over iJ^6o,ooo,ooo, so that in a quarter of a century 
there had been a depreciation or loss of over iJ^ 5 00, 000, 000 or 
$2,500,000,000. These loans had been to Turkey, Spain, 
Greece, Egypt, Mexico, Grenada, Venezuela, Iquique, Hon- 
duras, Peru, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, and other places. 
Lord Derby, in a public speech some time back, stated that 
the loss to British capital advanced to defaulting States alone 
had been over ^^"300, 000,000 or $1,500,000,000. Although a 
considerable amount of the mone}- loaned to those countries 
'might have been re-invested in English goods, there can be 
little doubt that by far the greater portion ^f the bullion sent 
to these countries has become absorbed amongst the popula- 
tion, and the Governments, in most cases, are unable to pay 
the interest or principal. Nearly one-half of the new work- 
ing capital of gold now furnished to and distributed through- 
out the world by the gold-mining population has been unfortu- 
nately sunk in these bankrupt States of Europe and South 
America. The same authority goes on to say, " Had the 
financiers and capitalists of England devoted a tithe of that 
vast sum so irretrievabh' lost in foreign bankrupt States, to 
the practical developments of gold-mining resources of the 
Australian Colonies, they would not only have materially 
aided the legitimate developments of mining, increased the 
supply of gold or purchasing power, and fostered other Indus- 



48 



THE NE]V EMPIRE. 



tries and forms of wealth incidental thereto, but would, in all 
probability, have been amply rewarded for their outia}'." 

Not only has mining- produced this $5,862,165,000 of 
bullion, but it has \vrested the Pacific half of America and 
the island continent of Australia from a wilderness. It has 
created a demand for new industries, has created these new 
industries and hundreds of millions of wealth in permanent 
improvements, furnishing emplo\'ment for the labor of the 




CONDUCTING WATER TO THE MINES. 

poor, and the capital of the rich. Thomas Cornish, in an 
article published in the London Mining Journal, says: " The 
value of our r^old supply has occasionally received attention 
at the hands of some writers on finance and political economy, 
but it is somewhat surprising that a subject of such vast 
importance to the general progress o{ the world has not been 
more fully dealt with." And continues: " There can be little 
doubt but that the unparalleled production of new wealth by 
the gold and silver mines, has been the primary cause of the 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 



49 



rapid progress of events, the enormous increased weaicn and 
prosperity of many civilized nations, and in consequence of 
this general advancement of wealth, intelligence, trade, com- 
merce and finance, it has become an absolute necessity that 
the annual production of gold should not maintain its present 
standard, but that the supply of new gold should increase 
annually in the same ratio as trade, commerce, and popula- 
tion." Mining must, therefore, be considered one of the 
most important industries of the world, and one to which 
there should be more intelligent consideration given than has 
heretofore been done. 

And, adding another testimony, "It will not be questioned," 
says Mr. Stephen Williamson, a conservative English writer, 
"that the large increase of the world's money, due to the 
Australian and Californian mineral discovery, led to a great 
extention of the world's commerce. The interchange of 
commodities was marvelously stimulated. Labor had for 
many years a greatly augmented recompense; the material 
comfort and welfare of mankind were greatly promoted. 
Real and personal property increased enormously in value all 
over the civilized world. The foreign commerce of England 
alone rose from ^250,000,000 in 1852 to ^650,000,000 in 
1875, and it has been gradually increasing to the present 
time. The foreign commerce of many other nations rose in 
like proportion." 

Production of the precious metals throughout the world 
in 1884:— 

AMERICA. 

Gold. Silver. Total. 

British Columbia $ 3,000,000 $ 3,000,000 

United i^tates 40,000,000 $47,000,000 87,000,000 

Mexico. 1,000,000 15,000.000 16,000.000 

Guatemala 2,000,000 40 >,00Q 2,400,000 

Honduras 750,000 150,000 900,000' 

San Salvador ;. 1,125000 225,000 1,350,000 

Nicaragua 875,000 175,000 1,050,000 

Costa Rica 250,000 50,000 300,000 

Columbia 3,000,000 1,000,000 4,000,000 

Peru 1,000,000 5,000,000 6,000,000 

Chili 1,000,000 3,000 000 4,000,000 

Buenos Ayres 1,000,000 1,000.000 2,000.000 

Argentine Republic 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 

Brazil 2,000,000 t, 000.000 3.000,000 

Other Countries 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 

Total $59,000,000 $76,000,000 $135,000,000 

4 



50 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 



EUROPE. 

Gold. Silver. Total. 

Russia $13,000,000 $1,000,000 $14,000,000 

Austria 2,000,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 

Prussia 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 

France 1,500,000 2,000,000 3,500,000 

Spain 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 

Other Countries 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 

Total $19,500,000 $7,000,000 $26,500,000 

ASIA. 

Gold. Silver. Total. 

Japan $1,500,000 $2,000,000 $3,500,000 

Borneo 3,000,000 3,000,000 

China 2,000,000 2,000,000 

Archipelago. 3,000,000 5,000,000 8,000,000 

Total $9,500,000 $7,000,000 $16,500,000 

Australia $18,000,000 $1,000,000 $19,000,000 

New Zealand 7,000,000 1,000,000 8,000,000 

Africa 4,000,000 1,000,000 5,000,000 

Oceanica 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 

Grand Total $118,000,000 $94,000,000 $212,000,000 

Now we have found by this investigation that the pro- 
duction of buUion since 1848 amounts to $5,862,165,000. 

That mining during the last thirty years has created 
more wealth, stimulated greater enterprise and industry, and 
produced more beneficial results to the commercial world 
than all the other industries combined. 

That mining is a safe, legitimate business when con- 
ducted on sound business principles. 

That the hazard and loss to capitalists are less than in 
most other enterprises in which men engage and invest their 
money. 

That the profits derived from mining are larger and more 
regular than in most avocations in life. 

That the demands for the precious metals are increasing 
year by year, and that their continued production is a para- 
mount necessity. 

That mining is deserving of and should receive the at- 
tention of scientists, financiers, and the enterprising men of 
the world 



52 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

DEALING IN STOCKS. 

There are three ways in which property can be rightfully acquired: 

By labor, which includes legitimate speculative investment. 

By discovery, 

And by voluntary gift, which includes inheritance. 

THERE are but few, if indeed there is a single question 
of any magnitude of a public nature on which all agree^ 
and it is right ; it is natural that thinkers as well as the 
unthinking should differ, because from such difference much 
good issues. Mining, for instance, in all its phases, is repre- 
sented by some as purely a business of chance or speculation ; 
thus conveying, or attempting to convey, the impression that 
this branch of industry is more hazardous than most other 
undertakings where industry and capital are necessary to 
abundant success. But the doctrine is absurdly erroneous. 
In point of fact, when reduced to its proper standard it will 
be found that all monetary success may be summed up in 
that one word, speculation. Look at it, turn it, analyze it as 
you will, the speculative element is blended with all our 
secular affairs, pervades every business avenue of life. Vast 
fortunes have been aniassed in every quarter of the civilized 
globe, but by whom — from what particular business ? Not 
necessarily the high born nor those of scholarly attainment.s 
or accomplishments, but to the speculator in speculative vent- 
ures, to those who grasp the present, forecast the future, and 
discount results ; the men who resolutely embark in large 
mining ventures, who invest judiciously in real estate, who 
connect themselves with and manage great railroads and 
railroad enterprises, or who engage as wholesale merchants 
in goods of universal necessity, — these are the men who 
ama-s colossal fortunes. To accumulate wealth as the miser 
does, is a slow process indeed, and will not compare in its 
results with the grand operations of bold, )et prudent men. 
The man who determines to invest in real estate, selects his 
location in or near some prosperous and growing city ; for 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 5S 

3'ears his investment may not seem to pay, may indeed be a 
burden to him, but when, by the natural growth of the city 
and surrounding country, his lands are enhanced, he finds 
himself rich as by magic. The projectors and managers of 
railroads move with greater celerity, if with less certainty. 
Their success depends less upon the efforts of outside parties, 
and more upon the vigor and persistence with which they 
push their own enterprise. Again, the control of large sums 
enables them to exercise their financial abilities in many 
channels at the same time. Their connection, moreover, with 
a certain clique, makes them possessed of everything worth 
knowing regarding the market position of stocks, and here 
is really where great fortunes are made, and made quickly. 

Vanderbilt, Gould, Sage, and their compeers, spent years 
of early life in accumulating what in late years they would 
realize in a single day. Stanford, Crocker, and their asso- 
ciates, are exponents of the same doctrine. The merchant's 
gains come more slowly. Great competitions circumscribe 
the profits of all small dealers. It is only the wholesale 
dealer, the man who ventures largely in staple articles, that 
can hope to rise speedily in the scale of fortune. The pork 
packers of Cincinnati and the grain merchants of Chicago 
present examples of the speedy acquisition of w^ealth by 
large and quick transactions. But John P. Jones, James C. 
Flood, John W. Macka}% James G. Fair, and George Hearst 
afford still more brilliant examples by the princely fortunes 
extending into the millions which they have amassed in the 
mines of the Pacific Coast. A few years ago they were poor 
men. They examined the situation; they forecast the future 
and operated boldly for grand results. They stepped out of 
what is known to the slow plodder as the rut of legitimate 
business, and entered upon the domain of speculation, hon- 
orable speculation, and all true speculation is honorable. 

The same opportunities, the same line of action pursued 
by them, is open to others who have the dash and the moral 
courage to emulate their example. 

But it may be urged that all do not make money who 
engage in mining; neither do all succeed who engage in 



54 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

banking, in mercantile pursuits or any other profession cr 
calling to which men direct their ability and energy. Pros- 
perity and adversity are to be met in all the diversified walks 
of life. The prompt business man with judgment and nerve 
may fairly expect as large and rapid returns from the invest- 
ment of capital and the employment of his time in sound 
mining transactions, as in the most promising, in fact as in 
any other avenue now open. But it may be said that mining 
leads to stock-gambling; so do canals; so do railroads; so do 
Government securities; so do all enterprises too large for 
private undertaking and doing business necessarily in the 
form of stock companies. But shall we therefore have no 
more canals, no more railroads, no more great undertakmgs 
of any kind, because, as it is urged, unprincipled men seize 
upon mining stocks as a favorite means of gambling? Shall 
we, therefore, abandon sound mining and mining transac- 
tions ? As well abandon money itself, because in what 
profession, trade, or calling are there not gamblers, schemers 
and workers of iniquity ? Do not journalists prostitute their 
journals for gain ? Do not lawyers sell their abilities to any 
man who has the money and chooses to pay them ? And do 
not clergymen have the loudest call to parishes which pay 
the largest salaries ? Do not some merchants give short weight 
and adulterate their wares? Do not some milkmen extend 
their fluid at the town pump, and whisky men enlarge their 
supplies from the kerosene can ? Do not some cloth and pa- 
per merchants know the value of shoddy and sizing, and so 
on to the end of the list? It is idle and mischievous to select 
the members of any particular class or profession, of gener- 
ally respectable people, and attempt to make them out worse 
than their neighbors. Human nature is human nature all 
the world round, in all grades of society. " Cast out the 
beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see 
clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye " is a 
short and pungent exhortation that all will do well to 
remember. 

The annual yield of our mines is a proof positive of their 
excellence. The enormous fortunes made during the past 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 55 

tweniy-five years by successful dealers in mining stocks, are 
witnesses, the power and force of whose testimony neither 
sophistry can weaken nor argument overthrow. They are 
realities to be measured and counted by all. Reduced to a 
business basis, whether in stocks, gravel beds, or quartz 
ledges, mining is precisely like any other business, with its 
bright and shady sides, in the main just what those engaged 
in it make it, nothing more, nothing less. " From quack 
lawyers, and quack doctors, and quack preachers, good Lord 
deliver us," was the prayer of the pious old farmer, and he 
might, with propriety, have embraced a few other quacks in 
his petition, in order, as Mrs. Whittlesey would say, "to make 
the platform broad enough to kiver the hull ground." 

When it becomes necessary to transact busniess, whether 
in stocks or otherwise, through the medium of an agent, it is 
wisdom, it is safe only to select a responsible, reliable man, 
one who is conscious of the fact that his business success de- 
pends on his doing right. 



CHAPTER IX. 

OTHER MINERALS. 



ACCORDING to the report of the United States Geolog- 
ical Survey for 1884, the enormous sum of $800,000,- 
000 is invested in American mining enterprises, all branches 
included, as productive capital; nearly half a million people 
are employed, and the annual production for the period over 
which the report runs was $413,104,620, or over fifty per cent, 
on the capital invested. Just drive a peg there. 

At the first blush these figures may be regarded with 
astonishment by a large number of generally well-informed 
people. As the figures are official, however, they must be 
accepted as correct. 

But we are particularly examining the mining interests of 
the Pacific slope of the continent, all acquired territory, and 
most of it long after the nation's independence. California, 
the key-stone of the industry, practically came into the Union 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 57 

on the 7th of July, 1846, when the emblem of liberty and 

progress was hoiste_d at Monterey, and gold and silver, the 

most valuable of all metals, are chiefly being considered. 

The gold is found in two general divisions— placer and 

quartz — and a large number of men are engaged in both 

divisions. The pan, rocker, flume, sluice and other methods, 

including hydraulic, power, are common on placer fields; but 

in quartz mining expensive machinery is necessary, and also 

a higher grade material. Although a few placer fields have 

been discovered in different sections of the coast, those of 

California are by far the largest, richest and most enduring; 

they are thousands of acres in extent, and their product is 

counted by the billion. 

SILVER. 

Nevada may fairly be styled the alma mater of silver- 
mining in America, and, indeed, the world, for she excels all 
other regions of equal radius, in production, and has been the 
educator of the world in the silver-mining business. Up to 
the discovery of the Comstock lode, the methods in vogue 
for taking out ore and extracting the silver were crude in the 
extreme. All the valuable new processes discovered and 
applied, through science, ingenuity and skill in this art, date 
from Nevada; and she has graduated a long list of brilliant 
men, given them fortune and fame, and set them as lights on 
the mountain-top, to guide others of equal courage, industry 
and frugality, to equal fortune and equal fame. 

A great deal of fault has been found with the manage- 
ment of these mines. Well, the men who had control of 
them doubtless managed them to suit themselves, just as 
those engaged in other avocations managed their business, 
and the privilege is open to these fault-finders to manage 
mines for themselves; they can either buy or go out into the 
mountains and discover. But the}- have neither the money 
to do the first nor the courage nor industry for the latter; 
their cry is, ''Divide." The world is full of tramps, socialists, 
renegades from good families, honorable professions and excel- 
lent opportunities, who find fault with everybody but them- 
selves; whereas, they alone are to blame for unappreciated, 



58 THE A/EJF EMPIRE. 

wasted talent and unappropriated opportunities. But this is 
no reflection on the mines, or the business of mining, nor does 
it detract from the value of the $350,000,000 given up by 
Nevada's mineral lodes, nor the millions annually produced 
by the mines of other Pacific States and Territories. 
QUICKSILVER. 

Quicksilver, next in value and importance, is also found 
in the Pacific empire; but, to more particularly localize the 
deposits, they are found in California, and within a hundred 
miles of San Francisco. In gold and silver mining it is an 
indispensable requisite; without it neither could be carried 
forward successfully. There are in all about fifty so-. ailed 
quicksilver mines in the State, but only a dozen that have 
developed sufficient merit to deserve the name, with a total 
production of 5,500 tons. The yield for 1885 was 32,073 
flasks of "J^yi pounds each. During the past twenty-five 
years the price has ranged from 35 cents to $1.55 a pound. 

COAL. 

The production and consumption of coal on the Pacific 
Coast are increasing. In 1883, the amount brought to San 
Francisco alone was 899,301 tons; in 1885, it was 1,223,339 
tons. Of coke the importation in 1884 was 10,695 tons;' in 
1885 it was 20,611 tons. 

Coal mines are found in California, Oregon, Utah, New 
Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Sonora, Washington and Alaska^ 
and in British Columbia, the last-named place furnishing the 
best quality. But the importations are from Europe and 
Australia as well as from British Columbia, brought here by 
vessels in ballast, a better article, with cheaper transportation, 
than from our own collieries. 

Our coal deposits are numerous and extensive, but so far 
as discovered are of the bituminous quality. They are incon- 
veniently situated, and are burdened with heavy transporta- 
tion. Three wealthy corporations are struggling for the 
control of the market; they have the money, business expe- 
rience and appliance, hence it is unliiscly that any new mines 
will be opened for a long time to come, as it would be enter- 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 59 

ing a hazardous field already monopolized, against dangerous 
competitors. 

PETROLEUM. 

Pennsylvania was long regarded as the coal and iron 
State of America; then she led off in the production of coal 
oil, and still continues to rank the world in this commodity 
As in quicksilver, so in petroleum, California is the only State 
on the Pacific slope where oil is known to exist in paying 
quantities, or where any considerable money has been invested 
in the business. In Montana, Idaho and Washington, what 
are called surface indications have been found, but no dis- 
covery of consequence has been made, while the general 
formation and the broken nature of the country are thought 
to be adverse to profitable oil wells in those regions. As far 
back as 1865 capitalists became interested in the oil regions 
of California, and since that time they have spent a million 
dollars or more in machinery and in boring wells. The oil 
production of the State for 1885 was about 5,000,000 gallons, 
being an increase of 25 per cent, over the preceding year; 
and it has been demonstrated that this output can be enor- 
mously increased. But the oil, like the coal business of the 
coast, is practically controlled by powerful monopol}-. 

Iron, copper, antimony, lead, asphaltum, sulphur, soap- 
stone, graphite, gypsum and diamonds are also found on the 
coast, and some of them in large quantities and of excel- 
lent quality; but capital, courage and industry are requisite to 
develop and gather their great wealth. 

Beginning with the first gold excitement caused by the 
placer discoveries in California in 1848, between that year and 
1865 we had: The California quartz discoveries in 185 i; the 
Australian gold find in 1852; the Oregon gold excitement in 
the same year; that of Washington Territory in 1854; the 
Peru gold rush in the same year; the great copper discover- 
ies on Lake Superior in 1855; the Arizona discovery in 1856; 
same in Nevada in 1857; the Frazer River rush in 1858; Cali- 
fornia copper in i860; Pennsylvania petroleum in 1S63 he 
Reese River boom in 1864; California petroleum and Colorado 
gold excitement in 1865— and the end is not yet. System 



60 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

and organization may prevail more largely than before, but 
let it be remembered that only a tithe of the precious metals 
has yet seen the light on the Pacific Coast. Many a bonanza 
is waiting for the lucky man, and many a ledge abandoned 
for a rush elsewhere, is biding its time for exposure of fabu- 
lous wealth. 



CHAPTER X. 

YOSEMITE. 

THE Pacific Coast is rich in natural wonders. Even as 
you approach it from the East, the way is thick set with 
deserts over which the mirage shimmers with its disembodied 
forests, flowers and fountains, and the mountain gateways 
are pillared with grand forms of many colored rocks. The 
exalted fancy is fed upon these scenes w.ich lie in front of 
the curtain which is finally lifted as the traveler passes the 
summit of the Sierras and slips down their hither slopes. He 
may have left winter behind in the Mississippi Valley, but here 
he is in the midst of spring. The forest around is vocal with 
the song of birds; the vineyards and orchards are offering 
their promise of fruit and wine; and with h.'s glance resting 
on green turf and flower-spattered fields, high above them 
all, he sees the white line of snow resting on the Sierra's ser- 
ried spine. The impression is never forgotten. That chain 
of mountains is the Himalaya of California, and on the plains 
below flow the counterpart of the holy rivers of India, and 
only the lowly Sudra and the lofty Brahmin and the great 
gulf between them are lacking to make a Hindostan in mini- 
ature. Once within the mountain walls there are problems 
in botany, geology, zoology and mineralogy which excite the 
wonder of scientific men; but aside from these which invoke 
skill in chemistry, knowledge of vegetable physiology and 
com[)arativ^e anatomy, we have in the wild scenery of our 
mountains, in our hot springs and geysers, a series of related 
phenomena furnished by no other part of the world. But 
after an industrious curiosity shall have seen them all, when, 
if possible, the senses are jaded by the unfolding marvels, 
then let Yosemite be seen. 




GENERAL VIEW OF YOSEMITE VALLEY. 



62 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

The route to it lies down the Southern Pacific raihvay to 
Berenda, where the just constructed Yosemite road leaves 
the main line and shortens the stage ride to the Valley by 
one day, and the only day on the original route that was list- 
less with lack of interest. By the Berenda road the first 
day's dinner is at Grant's White Sulphur Springs, where 
Judge Grant, formerly chief justice of Iowa, founder of the 
smelting industry of Colorado, president of the National 
Trotting Association, and millionaire, has founded the most 
elegant of resorts upon waters that by contrast leave the 
famous White Sulphur of Virginia without virtue. From 
Grant's, on the splendid road, spurned by the flying heels of 
the six horses which pull your coach at an unceasing gallop, 
the charms and marvels of the mountain region multiply 
every moment. Springs fed by the snows that are still far 
above your head, burst from the rocks by the way-side. You 
drink the crystal water. It is nectar. Around and above 
3'ou tower the sugar pines, on whose sides the crystallized 
sugar stands in pine-apple-like masses. 

The elevation, the air clarified of impurities, the lilies that 
embroider the carpet of turf and pine needles, the frequent 
loftv outlook across the great San Joaquin Valley, across the 
dwarfed Coast Range and to the Pacific Ocean, v/hose surf 
roars and rolls the sand a hundred and sixty miles away, all 
join to transfigure the beholder and make him seem to step 
out of his former self, as he has in fact gone out of, and above 
that world in which he felt like a worm, while here he feels 
like a god. 

At Clark's Mountain House there is rest for the night, 
and for breakfast apt to be mountain trout just delivered 
from stream so cold that the scaly beauty just out of it, pains 
your hand if you hold it. Such waters Izaak Walton never 
whipped with a fly, and such fish crisped over a broiling fire 
of cedar coals, no king ever ate. Near this Mountain House 
are the big trees of Mariposa, nearly 500 in the group, prone 
and erect. The}' stand, the survivors of the earliest vege- 
tat'on that came upon these mountains when nature had done 
retching, and her upheavals were finished. Here they have 







^ 








--A, 



■^'3, 



THE TWIN GIANTS. 



<U THE NEW EMPIRE. 

stood in solemnity and majesty all their own, and the years 
counted back to their germination melt into a perspective so 
remote that it easily embraces the earliest recorded history^ 
and includes the rise and fall of empires that were dissolved 
by old age when they had reached a thousand years. But to 
the monarchy of these kings of the forest there has been no 
end. They are not a dynasty, for nature has confessed her 
incapacity to repeat the effort which brought them forth. 
Without ancestry and without posterity, requiring the frame- 
work of a continent for their throne, they are the type of that 
eternity with which their sapling growth began and with 
which they endure, matchless, majestic, inscrutable ! 

Around their giant trunks and in their shadows, in his 
childhood, played the Indian Sequoia, and in his manhood 
he noted their difference in size, in foliage, bark and seed cone, 
from the neighbors which grew in their shadow; and as he 
was the first to guide to them German botanists, the trees that 
had sheltered' his infancy, and had awed his dawning con- 
sciousness, were called by his name," Sequoia." 

Loth to leave the trees and the mountain house the trav- 
eler, whose roused interest has risen superior to fatigue, looks 
forward to the second and last day's stage, which is to end at 
the valley. He has a conception of it. A valley suggests 
to him browsing herds whose bells tinkle while they nip the 
herbage or chew the cud. Just how such a valley shall rest 
amongst these lofty mountains, grows into the speculation of 
the traveler as the coach maintains its skyward flight, and at 
last he seems abreast of the bald ridge, in all months snow- 
crowned. If his entry of the Yosemitc be by Glacier Point, 
he finds himself looking out over mighty corrugations high 
above timber line, and with but little to encourage his cher- 
ished vision of a pastoral valley. Where can be the cas- 
cades and water-falls, the limpid river making a silvered 
line down flowery meadows? Around are rocks, massive, 
pitiless, ponderous, and immutable, whose crevices offer no 
home to grass, blade, or shrub, and which grudge the uncanny 
lichen its scanty living and home inhospitable. 

Where is the valley ?• All at once, from Glacier Point, in- 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 65 

stead of looking ahead, you look down, and, straight as a 
bullet would drop from your hand, 3,500 feet beneath, lies the 
valley. You are standing 7,201 feet above the sea, and the 
verdant floor of Yosemite has dropped half that distance 
back. Here are no gentle slopes, for the granite walls that 
shut the valley in rise mostly as straight as the plumb-line 
can drop. No description can do justice to this greatest 
natural marvel in the world. 

At Niagara you have the world of water droning an 
eternal doxology, then the gorge, the whirlpool, and, well, the 
hackmen. But here are the grand steps that lead up to the 
king of natural glories, and tell as much as pen may and tire. 
After it is seen, you realize that the half has not been told, for 
trees, mountain peaks, cafions, forests, and naked rocks piled 
in that confusion in which nature cast them as her work was 
finished, had made you expect to see something all unlike 
this focus of all natural wonders. 

It is as if the topmost ridge of the Sierras, which here 
preserves a main direction of north and south, had been 
parted right across, been pulled apart when it was so plastic 
that the general shape of the wound it left is that of a birch 
canoe, wider in the middle and tapering at the ends. Upon 
the floor of this space, disintegrated granite has sifted from 
the walls, and the inflowing streams have brought the elements 
of soil until its general surface is a meadow, charmingly 
dotted with trees, and from the height at which you are look- 
ing, if the sun be streaming through the western cleft in the 
rocks, it looks like a bijou carving, like a cameo setting to a 
ring or brooch. But you are looking down upon a tract 14 
miles in length by 3 broad at its widest part, and into it there 
pour water-falls that leap, unchecked, from heights varying 
from 500 to 3,270 feet. Here is Po-ho-no, the Bridal Veil, 
860 feet, and looking like a white plume swayed by the wind; 
Yosemite, 2,548 feet, a great web of fluffy white satin, it seems, 
hung over the cliff; Pi-wy-ack, Vernal Falls,. 336 feet, called 
the Cataract of Diamonds, because of the lights that play upon 
it; Yo-wi-ye, the Nevada Falls, full of splendors as the sunset 
strikes its snowy surface; Tu-lu-la-wi-ack, South Fork, 500 
5 



w 









VERNAL FALLS, YOSEMITE. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. , 67 

feet, and Loy-a, the Sentinel Falls, 3,270 feet. Where else 
in the world has nature so used her fountains for grand effect? 
Standing at Glacier Point, you see the mountain peaks, u hose 
feet are planted in the green turf of the valley far below. 
You are told their height, but you are dumb to all concep- 
tion of its immensity. Here is Tis-sa-ack, the Half Dome, by 
the original Indian occupants fondly called the Goddess of 
the Valley, 8,823 ^e^t high; Cloud's Rest, 9,912 feet; To-coy- 
ae, North Dome, 7,526 feet; Glacier Point, from which you 
took your first look, 7,201 feet; Cathedral Rock, 6,631 feet; 
Mah-tah, the Cap of Liberty. 7,062 feet; Mount Starr King, 
9,080 feet; Union Point, 6,290 feet; Pom-pom-pa-sus, the 
Falling Rocks, or Three Brothers, 7,751 feet; Poo-see-nah 
Chuck-ka, the Cathedral Spires, 5,934 feet; Sentinel Dome, 8, 1 22 
feet; the Sentinel, 7,065 feet; Inspiration Point, 5,248 feet; and 
grand old Tu-tock-ah-nu-lah, chief of the valley, El Capitan, not 
so lofty as some, but with a certain broadness of shoulder and 
solidity justifying his headship of this mountain clan of 
mountains, rising 7,012 feet. Where again in the world has 
nature planted mountain peaks so thickly, and so distinguished 
for features that draw pilgrims from every country ? 

You are at Glacier Point; you descend by a trail that 
zigzags down the wall. You may do it on foot, or on horse- 
back. When you are down in the valley, turn and look back 
along the way you have traveled ; it is like looking against 
the straight white wall of your room. High above you ap- 
pear other parties coming down the path 3'ou have just trod, 
and they look like specks stuck against a perfectly perpen- 
dicular wall. 

On and into the walls on both sides of the valley these 
trails are cut, and men and women, mounted on sure-footed 
horses, go up and down like flies walking on the window 
pane. If your head and hand are steady, there is no end to 
the exhilarating adventure furnished by the cliffs and mount- 
ains that girt and guard the placid green of the_valle}'. A 
Scotch bird-catcher, of St. Kilda, has scaled one of the lof- 
tiest peaks and planted an iron mast in its summit, to which 
a rope is fastened. By taking hold of this, with feet against 



68 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

the rock, and going hand over hand, you can pull yourself 
to a height of nearly 9,000 feet. Many try it, and several 
ladies have succeeded. But one can admire Niagara without 
shooting the falls in a canoe; and one can get an experience 
without which a life-time seems barren, b}^ staying on the 
charming walks and drives of the valley's floor, or, at most, 
trying the safe trails. 

When the moon is at the full and rises over the eastern end 
of the valley, so in line with the Nevada Fall that her silver 
seems to be pouring out of her face and down the cliff, sights are 
seen of such majesty and so full of inspiration that descrip- 
tive language is as idle as dumb show. As the moon climbs 
the sky, one side of the valley is in solemn shadow, while the 
white walls, peaks and water-falls on the other side take on a 
softness and tone that easily persuade the fancy that the eye 
is beholding something that is not of this world. 

If you are not so lucky as to catch a full moon, it en- 
tails earlier rising that you may see the da}' born and pillowed 
in this cradle made on purpose for the young gcd. For quiet 
pleasures there are buggy ricies, and then down through the 
valley's midst flows the crystalline Merced. Its waters are 
liquid diamonds, and floating over the pure white sand are rain- 
bow trout that drive you wild. But after all this is said, and 
were it even said by the inspired tongue of an archangel, there 
comes the same despairing admission that no painting, pho- 
tograph nor phrase that can be framed in words, can describe 
the beauty, purity, majesty and awe-inspiring grandeur of 
Yosemite. Hence all is focused in this advice: Take the 
train to Berenda, see for yourself and bring away an impres- 
sion that will endure like the memory of your first kiss. 



CHAPTER XI. 



SCHOOL, PULPIT AND PRESS. 

T was a statesman who declared that, compelled to choose, 
he would rather havcnewspapers without Government, than 
a Government without newspapers. 



1 



70 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

The press, pulpit and school are the unofficial, volunteer, 
spontaneous institutions of civilization Its merits are meas- 
ured by their excellence. They are the barometer, thermom- 
eter and wind gauge by which our moral meteorology is regis- 
tered. 

The schools of California were founded in the first con- 
stitution under which the State was admitted to the Union. 
The foundation was ample and it became the model for the 
other States and Territories of the New Empire. The oppor- 
tunities for common school culture are as accessible and their 
scope as satisfactory here as in any part of the Union. The 
country school is up to the severe standard of New England 
excellence, and the city systems offer facilities for liberal cult- 
ure unexcelled- 

To illustrate, Oakland, the second city of California, has 
attached to her city school system an astronomical observa- 
tory, with telescope equal to that of Albany or Chicago, and 
a complete set of instruments for the study of physical and 
mathematical astronomy. No other common school system 
in the Union has such an adjunct. This splendid equipment 
entire, is the gift of a public-spirited citizen. The tendency 
of our people to encourage science and culture has many sig- 
nificant illustrations, as the Lick Observatory, the librar}' and 
art gallery of the Berkeley University and the foundation of 
the Stanford University at Menlo Park. 

The thoughtful parents planning a migration and the 
foundation of a new home, always ask first, " What are the 
school facilities?" Here under the gifts and endowments re- 
lating to higher education, is the ample foundation for the 
common school, the origin and source of that fundamental 
knowledge which is absolutely necessary to a contented and 
prosperous life, and which in all cases is the thread to be fol- 
lowed forward into ampler learning and upward to the high- 
est attainable culture. 

The tinkle of the school bell follows the 9 o'clock sun 
across the New Empire from the eastern line in the mountains 
to its western border that slopes into the sea, and all along 
rise the chaste walls of seminaries, colleges, convents, schools 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 



n 



and other institutions existing by private enterprise or the 
patronage of different churches; and as the sun slopes to the 
west, the future rulers of the New Empire troop from the 




OAKLAND HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING. 

school-house door homeward, and as 4 o'clock rings along, 
leaping the meridians of longitude like a race-horse taking the 
hurdles, this army marches, shod or shoeless, still in its disci- 
pline and brain and brawn girt with the hopes, the happiness 
and the greatness of all the future. Beardless soldiers, brave 



72 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

in their innocence, strong in obedience and discipline, the 
common school trains them for the evolutions of life's battle, 
and its work is nobler than the tactics taught at Woolwich or 
St. Cyr 

The banner of the cross was first borne to this coast, 
more than one hundred years ago, by the devoted padres who 
came as missionaries to the Indian tribes. The story is full of fas- 
cination. Its points are glowing with the national warmth of 
the Spanish character, suffused with a religious zeal that counted 
itself happy in the discovery of obstacles and the presence of 
danger. The story of the Spanish missions has been told 
many times, but its interest is not exhausted by repetition- 
All along the coast from San Diego to San Francisco stand 
the mission churches, man)* of them more than a century old, 
their adobe walls defying the abrading blows of time, to which 
many newer and more pretentious structures have yielded. 
The mission fathers brought with them wheat, the olive and 
vine; for bread and wine and oil are the elements in sacrament 
and ceremony dear to the believer's heart. So it came to pass 
that the three leading products of our soil, upon which now 
tens of thousands depend for support, were planted first by 
holy hands and consecrated to use in the mysteries which are 
around the lintel of that low door by which we enter immor- 
tality. 

Following this venerable establishment, as other peoples 
and other creeds were lured to the new land, came all the 
communions, and with them to the different pulpits such 
strong men as arc al\\'ays in the front. The Presbyterian, 
Baptist, Methodist, Christian, Episcopalian, Congregational, 
Advent, Unitarian, Univcrsalist and all others, soon floated 
their standards, and go where you will it is not possible to get 
beyond the influence, or far from convenient resort to the 
temple of God that shall best accord with your tastes and 
convictions. Here the Israelite has built noble synagogues 
and in them cultured rabbis unroll the scroll of the Pentateuch; 
and here cathedrals and churches of fine and noble architect- 
ure attest at once the piet}- and liberalit}' of a people who 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 73 

look through nature up to nature's God, with a vision clarified 
by daily observation of the beauties and the blessings created 
here and planted in their place by an Almighty Hand. 



It was a prudent mother who objected to Ben. Franklin 
as a husband for her daughter because he was a printer and 
a newspaper man, and there were already two newspapers in 
America and she thought the business was so overdone that 
the cup would never be found in Benjamin's sack.- 

Since her day the press has wonderfully multiplied, not 
only in America, but all over the world. A very patient stat- 
istician has compiled some interesting figures as to the total 
number of new^spapcrs and other periodicals published in every 
part of the world, and brings the total number up to 35,000, 
thus giving one to every 28,000 inhabitants. Europe, accord- 
ing to these calculations, has 20,000 newspapers, Germany 
coming first with 5,500, of which 800 are published daily; 
the oldest being the Post Zeitung, published in Frankfort in 
1616, while the one with the largest circulation is the Berliner 
Tageblatt, which, prints 55,000 copies. Great Britain comes 
next with 4,000 newspapers, of which 800 are published daily; 
while France has 4,092, of v.'hich 360 only are daily. Italy 
comes fourth, with 1,400 newspapers, of which 200 are pub- 
lished at Rome, 140 at Milan, 120 at Naples, 94 at Turin, and 
70 at Florence, the oldest being the Gazctta di Gcnova, first 
published in 1/97. Twelve hundred newspapers are published 
in Austro-Hungary, of which 150 arc dail}', the most remark- 
able of the Austrian journals being one called Acta Compar- 
ationis Literariim U}iiversarum, which is a review of compar- 
ative literative literature, with contributors in ever)- part of the 
world, each of whose articles is printed in its native tongue. 
Spain has about 50 journals, of which a third are political; and 
Russia has only 800, of which 200 are printed at St. Petersburg 
and 75 at Moscow. Several of these journals are printed in 
3 different languages, and there are also 4 published in 
French, 3 in German, 2 in Latin and 2 in Hebrew, besides 
several others in Polish, Finnish, Tartar and Georgian. 
Greece has upward of 600 newspapers, of which 54 appear at 



7-1- THE XE W EMPIRE. 

Athens, while Switzerland has 450 and Holland and Belgium 
about 300 each. There are 3,000 journals published in Asia, 
of which no fewer than 2,000 appear in Japan; but in China 
the only newspapers not published by residents at the treaty 
ports are the Ning-Pao,ds\ official journal published at Pekin; 
the CJien-Pao and the Hii-Pao, published at Shanghai, and 
the Government journal, which was brought out in Corea last 
year. There are 3 newspapers published in French, Cochin, 
China, and i in Tonquin (P Avetiir du Tonkin), 'Csxo. rest of the 
newspapers credited to Asia appearing in India, with the ex- 
ception of 6, which are published in Persia. Africa can 
boast of only 300 papers, of which 30 appear in Eg}'pt and 
the remainder in the colonies of England, France, etc. The 
United States possess about 12,500 periodicals, of which 
1,000 are published daily, the oldest being the Boston Nexvs, 
which was first published in 1794. Among the United States 
journals there are no fewer than 120 edited and published by 
neg-roes, the oldest of these being the Elevator, which was 
brought out of San Francisco 18 years ago. Canada has 700 
newspapers, a considerable proportion of which are published 
in French; and in South America, the Argentine Republic 
comes first with 60 newspapers. Australia has 700 journals, 
nearly all published in English, and the Sandwich Islands 
8, of which 5 are in English and 3 in the native tongue. 
Out of the 35,000 periodicals enumerated above, 16,500 are 
in English, 7,800 in German, 6,580 in French, 1,600 in Span- 
ish, and 1,450 in Italian. 

The oldest newspaper in the New Empire is the Alta Cal- 
ifornia, San Francisco. It pioneered the way for a numer- 
ous succession. Throughout the States and Territories of 
the Pacific slope newspapers are thickly planted. In Ari- 
zona they plan campaigns against the Apaches. In Utah 
they skirmish over the Mormon question, and its pros and 
cons are served out with great heat. In Nevada the eld 
glories of the bonanza time occupy them with ancient his- 
tory, while the State's growing agriculture, horticulture and 
live stock interests, as well as the new mines which keep up its 
mineral reputation, give the press material themes. In Call- 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 75 

fornia is a country press of peculiar power and intelligence. 
It is a faithful reflex of the interests and conditions attract- 
ive of immigration, and its unstudieci notes of rural matters 
are a treasury of valuable information. 

The metropolitan press is enterprising, as becomes the 
news medium that hangs upon the edge of a continent, in the 
Anglo-Saxon commonwealth most remote from the center of 
that race, London. In a \vorld by itself, an empire within 
an empire, the press of such a community has functions novel 
and unknown to journalism in the midst of millions of peo- 
ple, and in vital contact with the dense populations which 
generate the myriad events we call news. The metropolitan 
journals of the New Empire get their news over vast spaces 
of land and sea, and its arrangement, assortment, adaptation, 
and condensation, call for a tireless industry, and a cosmo- 
politan intelligence, — knowledge of men and events, and an 
insight, foresight, and hindsight, that are not required in any 
other position in the world. 

Judged, then, by its schools, its pulpits, and its press, the 
New Empire may boast that civilization is planted here, and 
that the temples of learning, and religion and the press, join 
in guarding the progress of the people in prosperity, and the 
gentle arts that make up the intellectual pleasures of life, and 
so add to its enjoyments. 



CHAPTER XII. 



BENCH AND BAR. 

PEOPLE are careful about permanent investment in any 
country until they know that life, liberty and property are 
made secure, and have their rights intrenched in an organized 
judiciary which brings virtue and intelligence to the guard- 
ianship of those institutions which mark the difference be- 
tween civilization and savagery. All of the New Empire had 
to be wrested from an original proprietorship by methods in- 
volving a show of force that does not belong to the judicial 
arm. For a time after this transfer it was believed through- 
out the world that there was little security here for what a 



76 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

man earned beyond his own capacity to protect it. But within 
thirty years of a beginning that was in legal chaos, a sway 
of law has been established, and in the Territories the Fed- 
eral Government has planted courts to which men resort for a 
determination of their rights; and in the States the people 
have supplied an elective judiciary not inferior to that of the 
older commonwealths. As business adventure brought here 
the flower of youthful activit}-, and here it ripened into business 
careers the most successful and remarkable that the Republic 
has seen, so here the best culture of the law schools, and the 
finest capacities in the legal profession, came. A more brilliant, 
learned and upright bar has scarcely been seen in America than 
was the result. The men composing it found here great legal 
questions, in bold outline, and dealing with them, our lawyers, 
to a degree, escaped that species of professional controversy 
ivhich, while it may sharpen, tends to narrow the mind. 

Ben. Franklin desired that judges should be chosen by 
vote of the lawyers, because they would always choose the 
best lawyer, in order to distribute his practice. By natural 
choice the people of these States have done this good office 
for the profession, for almost without exception the judges of 
all the courts have been selected amongst the ablest and, of 
course, the most successful practitioners. 

The effect of this process has been the rapid spread of 
the institutions of civilization. Sheep do not feed where the 
wolves frequent, and property is not accumulated where the 
laws and the courts deny to it adequate protection. Here 
the New Empire is happy in courts that stand sternly in de- 
fense of all rights, that do not huckster justice, and that form, 
therefore, no inconsiderable agency in the attraction of cap- 
ital and the luring of immigration to take advantage of the 
splendid resources which here await development. 

To these courts a president of the United States has 
come to get a recruit to the ablest side of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, and for men to fill responsible posts in 
the Territorial judiciary, where their training fits them admi- 
rably for planting and maintaining the forces of societ}-, and 
laying the judicial foundation of States. 



THE NEW EMPIRE 77 

CHAPTER XIII. 

MONTEREY. 

THE pleasant resorts of the Pacific Coast are outorowths 
of the wealth and social taste of the people of the New 
Empire. There are fine beaches at Santa Monica, San 
Pedro, Monterey, and Santa Cruz. ".Bull Run" Russell, who 
visited them a few years ago, accompanied by the Duke of 
■Sutherland, declared them to be amongst the finest bathing 
beaches in the world. They nearly all have passed through, 
the camping stage. Their sands were found to be mellow, 
and their waters temperate, and camping parties took their 
tents and leisure there. All that has grown up on shore is 
simply evolution from the tent and camp-fire. But the air 
and water are pure as when their advantages were enjoyed 
al fresco. The greatest development has been made at Mon- 
terey, on the bay of the same name. Sir Francis Drake, all 
hero and part corsair, missed Monterey Bay as he sailed up 
the coast, which he named New Albion, and that placid 
crescent was not discovered until 1602, by Viscanio. It is 
noteworthy as having been the scene of the first attempt to 
take California for the United States, and as the theater of 
the final affirmation of our title to the soil. 

So Monterey is a sort of Plymouth Rock for our Pacific 
possessions, and therefore the blarney-stone of the New 
Empire. In 1842 Commodore Jones, of the American navy, 
sailed into this bay, assaulted and captured Fort Monterey, 
and ran up the stars and stripes; but soon ran them 
down again, and apologized. His apology seems to have 
been accepted, probably because the garrison was short of 
powder. The incident suggests the former enterprise of 
our navy, which let no good-looking coast languish for an 
owner. The Commodore was only four years ahead of time, 
for July 7, 1846, an American frigate sailed up to Monterey. 
Her marines did a bit of scuffling with the natives, and the 
stars and stripes went up to stay. A few days later a British 
admiral, who was also out hunting land, sailed up to Mon- 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 79 

terey, to find himself a little too late. The own remained 
the capital of California for some time, and there met the 
first Constitutional Convention. To this day it retains many 
of the quaint Spanish features; and adobe houses, tile roofed, 
with their ample vjrandas and high-walled gardens, rouse 
visions of secluded ladies and sighing swains. 

Here, where the sands of the beach are silkiest, the 
water pure as a maiden's heart, and its embrace warm and 
wifely, is the Hotel del Monte — -" thou most beauteous inn." 
Around it is a park of hundreds of acres, shaded by the 
original live-oak trees, re-enforced by magnolias and every 
kind of great ;.nd lesser tree and shrub that the most tasteful 
landscape gardening requires. Lighting this verdant park, as 
the constellations do the serene heavens, are acres of flowers; 
and through it, sinuous and graceful, wind drives and paths, 
tempting to lovers. 

In the midst of this bloom and perfume stands the 
hotel, the perfection of adaptation to the conditions of a sea- 
side resort Fire-places cheer the evening, for remember that 
the waters of Del Monte tempt the surf bathers in what the 
East knows as th-^ winter months, and night-fall makes the 
")pen fire a feature amongst the comforts of life But here 
. ^o winter; the flowers bloom, the trees flaunt their green 
bH."' ers, and in the open waters of the great bay the whales 
spo: in all months, in the Del Monte are spacious billiard 
rooni- \nd there you may play ancient "shuffle board," w'lich 
was the diversion of Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh, 
befor.i' caroms and cues had been invented. " We have had 
pastimes here, and pleasant games." 

It is impossible to refer to the material resources and 
latent wealth of the New Empire without at least this much 
reference to a resort created by its fashion and good taste, 
since civilization points to these refinements as proof of its 
existence, and life is softened by occasional indulgence in the 
recreations to which they tempt. It is well that Del Monte 
is planted to face the waters that firsf: fell under our dominion, 
sheltered by the mountains that ga\-e back a replication of 
broadsides, whose iron voices proclaimed conquest and decreed 



80 THE yEW EMPIRE. 

liberty to this land. In it are compact the graces and gifts 
of Saratoga, Long Branch, and Cape May, and, in the judg- 
ment of men and women of the best taste, it is one of the 
most pleasure-provoking resorts on either coast of the conti- 
nent. Like the growth of our cities, it is a sign of the enter- 
prise of our people. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MODES OF TRAVEL. 

THE New Empire has become the highway of the world. 
It has realized Benton's dream of a new path to India, 
reaching the East by going west. Columbus had that plan in 
view when he sailed west, and ran his prow into a continent 
that lay across his track, stretched almost from pole to pole. 
At first this continent was an obstruction to travel, but it has 
been turned into a facility. In Benton's speech to the Sen- 
ate he proposed to build a monument on the summit of a 
Rocky Mountain pass, with a hand pointing to sunset, and 
inscribed upon it, " It is the East! It is India! " So across 
this continent travel was at right angles to the meridians of 
longitude, while its great rivers paralleled them. Inland navi- 
gation was mainly north and south, following the rivers. 
Travel, following the instinct which led our race out of west- 
ern Asia, and set its face westward, and has brought it to the 
edge of this continent, facing its birthplace, could not use the 
rivers, so it crossed them. 

No people ever came through greater difficulties than 
those met by the early Californians. They had choice of 
three routes, around Cape Horn, overland b)' wagons and pack 
trains, and across the Isthmus. Around the Horn required 
six months, and exposure to every extreme of climate; for 
on the Atlantic it was a plunge from the north temperate 
zone clear through the tropics, across the south temperate,. 
into the south frigid, and a repetition of the same experience 
in the Pacific with the order reversed. Many a man fell 
under the perils of the long voyage, and many a ship laid her 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 81 

bones around the storm\- cape or in the Straits of Magellan. 
The necessities of so long a voyage put the passenger upon 
rations of salt food and bad water, and often scurvy rotted 
the flesh on his bones before he reached a diet that could 
arrest its ravages. That voyage of a half year, through tropi- 
cal storms and polar snows, with hardship and disease hover- 
ing every knot made by the ship, was so full of discomfort 
and so often fatal to those unaccustomed to going down to the 
sea in ships, that its alternative by the Isthmus came into 
favor, and the tide of travel turned toward Panama. Any 
hull that would hold an engine became a steamship, and the 
reeking Isthmus was traversed in canoes and flat boats and 
rafts as far as its rivers were open to such transit, and then 
mules and horses were substituted. Cholera and yellow fever 
lurked by the way-side, and struck down man}- a strong man 
with the suddenness of a thunderbolt, and many a youth 
there gave up his life and with it the golden hope that had 
lured him into this lair of death's twin furies. At last the 
Panama railroad was built by an outlay of life that made ev^ery 
tie represent the bones of a laborer, and over this highway, 
digged by death and bordered by an unbroken line of rat- 
tling skeletons, poured the tide of life. The third method 
was overland. Under favorable circumstances the journey 
could be made in six months, from the Missouri River, along 
whose banks were the outfitting points, the Irak, Damascus, 
and Cairo of those more earnest than Meccan pilgrims. The 
line of civilization, held by the advance guard, then lay east 
of that river; west of it the geography and geolog}^ were as 
nebulous as to-day they are in the interior of Africa. Across 
the map was stretched a blank space, usually colored yellow 
to make a meaner impression, and named the Great Ameri- 
can Desert. The desert began within fift}' miles of the west 
bank of the Missouri, and its Nile was the Platte, which came 
boiling down, roily and treacherous, useless for navigation, 
and hard to ford, for its quicksands were always hungry and had 
their fill on many a stout ox-team and band of horses. The 
forty-niners had to face the imaginary and real terrors of a 
trip which, alas! is no more a necessity. It lay through the 
6 



82 THE NE IF EMPIRE, 

territory of wild Indians, who levied tribute on the wagon 
trains; who stood at fords and ferries and exacted a toll that 
now pays a fare across the continent from ocean to ocean, 
with six days instead of six months required for the trip. It 
sometimes seems a pity that the terrors and toils of these 
three primitive routes to this coast should be no longer, for 
they were a magnificent test of the endurance and courage of 
men; but they made martyrs, and each of the early grand 
highways has its tale of death and suffering. The fancy will 
never tire of the story of Herndon preferring to sink with his 
ship, nor of the tragedy of Mountain Meadows so tardily 
avenged, nor of the snow and famine that closed around the 
Donner party and imprisoned them to starvation. Along 
that overland way gentle women were brought to the agonies 
of maternity by the camp-fire, and to young and old came 
the final summons which must be obeyed equally in the 
desert or the city. 

But what a change was wrought within nineteen }'ears 
of the beginning of immigration to this coast! From being 
the least accessible, the hardest to reach, and most difficult to 
leave of any part of the Union, by the completion of the 
Union and Central Pacific Railways it became easily ac- 
cessible. The terrors of Cape Horn, the fevers of the Isthmus, 
the perils of death by thirst and famine overland, all passed 
like the morning gloaming. Now, four routes by rail, the 
Central Pacific, Southern Pacific, Northern Pacific, and At- 
lantic and Pacific, connect the New Empire with the East; 
and that land so lately reached through perils that would have 
appalled a Crusader, is brought within six days of the Atlantic 
Coast, and the citizen of London who has business in Mel- 
bourne or Calcutta takes his through ticket via San Francisco, 
finds his berth in the sleeper waiting him at New York, 
Omaha, and Ogden, and in fourteen days from Liverpool sees 
the tide come through the Golden Gate. And the fare for 
the trip costs less than the price of a single team to be used 
in the long overland journey of thirty years ago. 

We take the goods the gods send us, as a matter of course 
due to our deserts. But who shall estimate the business toil, 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 83 

the readiness, and adventure which led railways up mount- 
ains and down, through wastes where no dewdrop catches the 
sun rise, overcoming snows and shifting sands, and so made 
the whole world that goes from the Occident to the Orient, 
pass by the Golden Gate! What a change this enterprise 
wrought! No more double transit of the equator, no more 
deathly wrestle with yellow fever, no more whoa-hawing of 
the patient ox overland, but, instead, six days of luxurious 
travel, on quintuplex springs and paper wheels, with a bed at 
night full length, and a companionship pleasant, because sure 
to be a miniature congress of the nations. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE WORLD'S FAIR. 



GRAND expositions of the industries and productions of 
the earth, its inventions, machinery and art, illustrations 
of the state and progress of science, have been held in Lon- 
don, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Vienna, and New Orleans. 
None has been so located as to collect the resources and 
immediately interest the peoples of the great countries bor- 
dering the Pacific. The next exposition should be located in 
San Francisco. It is in the center of the territory of the 
United States, and is the greatest seaport on the Pacific 
Ocean. It has ample railroad connections with Mexico, will 
soon have with British Columbia, far Manitoba and the Hud- 
son's Bay country, so that its railroad facilities will outreach 
from the tropics far toward the polar circle, while with interior 
and Eastern and Southern States they are ample. Since the 
New Orleans Exposition it has been said that another can- 
not be undertaken for a very long time, because of the dis- 
couragement its failure has caused. There is nothing in this. 
The great cities of the world are located in a belt that lies 
between 38 and 51 degrees north latitude. Within that zone 
are located the great activities of the human race. Within it 
are the industry, thrift, economy, and enterprise which., have 
generated the capital that controls the productions of the 



81: THE NEW EMPIRE. 

globe. The commerce and travel that are in ceaseless mo- 
tion are confined to that circle clear around the earth, for 
within it are London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Rome, 
(Constantinople, Pekin, Tokio, San Francisco, Chicago, St. 
Louis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, with 
a city population aggregating nearly twenty millions of peo- 
ple. It is the world's commercial zone, and temporary con- 
centration of its activities and their results has always been 
easy within its borders, but never a success outside. 

San Francisco is one of the jewels set in this ring around 
the earth, and here are all the natural advantages and features 
which tend to make a successful world's fair. The great bay, 
the mountains that border it completely around, the natural 
-objects of interest within easy reach, the geysers, petrified 
forests, mineral springs, forests of great trees, the mountain 
peaks that are easily climbed above the clouds, the valleys 
•covered with vineyards and orchards, the hills clad with bright 
olive groves, the orange orchards flecked with golden fruit 
and aromatic with bloom, Yosemite Valley, Lake Tahoe, and 
the sunny sea beaches, make up a combination that cannot 
be equaled by any other locality in the world. The cities of 
the bay, San Francisco, Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, San 
Jose, San Rafael, Saucelito, Vallejo, Benicia, and Napa, all 
within a short reach of each other either by rail or steamer, 
offer ample accommodations to a congress of the nations. 
The cosmopolitan nature of our population is an attraction 
that no other city in the world can offer. Here are settled 
Greeks, who can welcome their countrj'men from the ^Egean; 
the Bombay merchant will find here his Parsee brethren; the 
Japanese will hail his friends, and the Chinaman will find 
here the many buttoned mandarin of the Flowery Kingdom. 
Our German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rus- 
sian fellow-citizens are in such numbers as to be appreciable 
in the social life and business of the New Empire, and to 
materially influence the favor of their countrymen towards a 
world's fair in San Francisco. The hotels here are on a scale 
of amplitude found nowhere else, and they stand at the head 
of the hotels of the world, unexcelled by any in architectural 
effects, capacity, and administration. 



THE NE IF EMPIRE. 85 

On what better or more accessible ground can the world's 
captains of industry summon a general muster than this? 
It is within the commercial and industrial belt, and right in 
the path of circum-terrestrial travel. New Orleans was at 
one side, inconvenient of access, and unfitted for such an en- 
terprise. Asia, Africa, Australia, and the islands of the sea 
will vie with Europe and America in showing here the highest 
results of the toil, genius, and art of their people, and so there 
will come to hundreds of thousands an opportunity to seethe 
New Empire and at the same time show what the old em- 
pires have done and are doing for the advancement of 
mankind. 

The world has never tested fully the hospitality of the 
people of the New Empire. Here are scores of the grandest 
and roomiest private houses on the continent, with owners 
whose keenest pleasure lies in the generosities of entertain- 
ment, and to which even visitors with crowned heads may 
resort, to confess that they have never enjoyed more the 
pleasure of being guests. 

But aside from this, here is the cheapest living in Amer- 
ica, and the best, with a market that never fails in the choicest 
meats, fish, poultry, vegetables, and fruits anywhere grown. 
Here is associated the greatest economic skill in its prepa- 
ration for food, so that the restaurant fare of San Francisco 
has come to be noted all over the world for its excellence and 
cheapness. The advanced guard of visitors to a world's fair 
here will have no tales of bad service and extortion to send 
back to deter others, as was the case at New Orleans; but, 
rather, the skirmish line will ask the main body to come on, 
for here they can enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of life 
as cheaply as at home. 



CHAPTER X \' I . 

CALIFORXL\. 

THE population of California is given at 1,000,000. which 
is being increased by births and immigration at the rate 
of 60,000 per annum. California, with her resources properly 



86 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

developed, is capable of sustaining a population of 20,000,000. 
The assessed value of her real estate foots up $500,000,000; 
personal property $200,000,000; 7,000,000 acres of land are 
under cultivation, and 9,000,000 acres are fenced. The value 
of annual products is $180,000,000. As a State, she is prac- 
tically out of debt. In her savings banks are deposited 
$60,000,000. The banking capital of the State is $50,000,000, 
and the annual product of bullion is $18,000,000. The aver- 
age value of the wheat crop is $45,000,000; barle}', $10,000,000; 
dairy products, $8,000,000; fruit crop, $7,500,000; wool clip, 
$8,000,000; wine products, $5,000,000; value of lumber man- 
ufactured in the State, $5,500,000; hay crop, $13,000,000; 
domestic animals of all kinds, value, $60,000,000; value of 
animals, poultry, etc., slaughtered every year, $23,000,000; 
increased value imparted to manufactures, etc., by labor, 
$40,000,000; number of grape vines set out, 130,000,000; fruit 
and nut trees, 800,000; with five times as m.any forest, shade, 
and ornamental trees. The State contains 3,500 miles of 
telegraph lines, 3,300 miles of railroad, 5,000 miles of mining 
with an equal extent of irrigating ditches; 400 quartz mills, 
300 saw-mills, and 185 flouring mills; $250,000,000 have been 
invested in mining improvements in the State, cost of quartz 
mills, tunnels, and ditches ir.cluded. 

The annual reports of the Agricultural Department at 
Washington, running over a period of three }'ears, with a 
general average, show the following interesting facts wi h 
regard to some of the productions of California, as compared 
with all the other States and Territories in the Union, and 
more particularly with regard to some of the leading agri- 
cultural States: — 

H.A.RLEV. 

Entire proihiction of the United States and Territories, including bushels. 

California 42, 564,692 

California 14,723,915 

HAY. 

Average value per acre, United States $12 34 

California 21 65 

OATS. 

Average value per acre. United States $ S 84 

California 20 55 



THE NE IV EMPIRE. 87 



■> POTATO CROP. 

Average value per acre, United Slates and Territories $42 74 

" " California 97 29 

" " Oregon 02 57 

" " Kansas 5 ' 99 

" " Michigan 45 42 

" " Minnesota : . 36 54 

" " Nebraska 3i Z3 

" " Illinois 3618 

" " Iowa 29 56 

" " Wisconsin 32 74 

AVERAGE CASH VALUE PER ACRE OF CHIEF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

United States and Territories, including California $12 68 

California 1 8 36 

Texas 1568 

Wisconsin 12 34 

Illinois 10 59 

Minnesota 9 86 

Iowa 891 

Florida 864 

Kansas 8 22 

Nebraska 7 34 

CORN CROP. 

VALUE YIELD 

PER ACRE. PER ACRE. 

United States and Territories, including California. . .$10 13 27.90 bu'ls. 

Cal fornia 22 38 3i-50 " 

Colorado '. . 19 75 26.20 '• 

Iowa 833 37.80 

Illinois 8 80 29.80 

Kansas 7 95 32. 10 

Florida 7 15 8.09 

Nebraska 7 60 38.00 

Georgia 6 52 9. So 

And also in the value of her wheat crop California leads all 
the States and Territories in the Union. Ohio stands next, 
Indiana third, with Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois follow- 
ing in succession. 

The following table of wheat and barley acreage for 1886 
has been carefully compiled from reports just received from 
correspondents in the principal grain-growing counties of the 
State. It is of significant importance, as showing not only 
the acreage in wheat and barley for the present year and the 
average yield of each per acre, but also that the wheat crop 
of California for 1886 will be much larger than the greatest 
wheat yield during any year of an}- State in the Union : — 



88 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 



County. 



Wheat 
Acreage. 



Alameda 

Calaveras 

Colusa 

Contra Costa . . 

Fresno 

Kern 

Los Angeles. . . . 

Mariposa 

Mendocino 

Merced 

Napa 

Sacramento 

San Benito 

San Bernardino. 
San Joaquin. . . . 
San Luis Obispo 
San Mateo. . . . 
Santa Barbara. . 
Santa Clara. . . . 
Santa Cruz. . . . 

Siskiyou 

Solano 

Stanislaus 

Sutter 

Tulare 

Tuolumne 

Ventura. 

Yolo 

Yuba . . , 

Totals 



75,062 

30,000 
400,000 
153.560 
300,000 

15,000 

250,000 

1,500 

12,000 
185,000 

25.593 
87,000 
47,000 

3.500 
250,000 
101,000 

8, 000 
60,000 

101,355 
25,000 
10,000 
61,536 

341,000 
95,000 

415,000 

7.025 

20, 000 

340,000 
30,000 



3.450,131 



Avr'ge Y'ld 
per Acre 
Centals. 



1/ 



10 

. S7. 
II 
II 

9 
II 
II 
II 
II 

8K 
io>^ 
10 1-5 

i3>< 

II 

II 

II 

13 

13 

14 

14 

10 

9 
13 

10 
10 

9 
10 
10 



Barley 
Acreage. 



32,373 
12,000 
45,000 
29, 040 
40,000 

S,ooo 
100,000 

6,700 

4,000 
27,000 

3.2:1 
22,000 

9,000 

80,000 

40,oco 

125,000 

7,000 
20,000 

168,935 
11,000 

6,100 
16,770 
45,000 
18,000 
45,000 

2,580 
80,000' 
65,000 
13,000 



1,081,729 



Avr'ge V'ld 
per Acre. 
Centals. 



15 
12 
16 
15 
15 
18 
20 
12 
17 

22}4 
13-70 

13 1-5 

24 

21 

15 

20 

20 

22 

20 

14 

1 3- 24 

10 

17 
15 
15 
13 
15 
20 



All the counties of the State are not here enumerated, 
because the assessors had not received enough sufficiently ac- 
curate returns on which to base reliable statements, but gen- 
eral reports received from these counties show that both the 
average and yield of them will be in excess of last year. 

The total acreage sown to barley as shown in the above 
table is 1,081,729 acres. The total yield of barley from these 
counties as calculated out is- 18,633,130 centals, equal to 38,- 
819,020 bushels.- The barley crop might have shown a still 
larger return, but in many counties large quantities were cut 
for hay, which, had it been allowed to mature, would have 
made good marketable grain. 

The total acreage of wheat as shown in the counties 
mentioned in the above table is 3,450,131 acres. The total 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 89 

yield as figured out is 35,862,518 centals, equal to 59,770,863 
bushels. 

There arc, as above indicated, still a few counties to hear 
from which, it is fair to assume, will enlarge the production 
so that the wheat crop of California for this present year will 
reach the enormous c^uantity of 60,000,000 bushels. 

Asbestos is found in many counties of the State, and is 
mainly utilized as a coating for steam boilers and pipes. 

Ores of nickel occur here also, but not in quantities suffi- 
cient to be profitable to work. 

The only extensive deposits of chrome ore in the United 
States are found in this State. They are mainly found in 
Placer, San Luis Obispo, Del Norte, and Alameda Counties. 
About 3,000 tons per annum are shipped to Baltimore and 
Philadelphia. 

The joint production of borax of California and Nevada 
has increased from 5, 180,8 10 pounds in 1--876 to over 8,000,000 
pounds in 1885. The Pacific Coast exports in 1885 amounted 
to 9,000,000 pounds. The borax fields are in the boundaries 
of the two States, and are the only ones in the United 
States. 

California produces about 200 tons of carbonate of soda 
per annum. It costs $45 per ton delivered in San Francisco. 

The Inyo County marble deposit is a very large one, and 
is now being worked . 

California is prolific in limestone, there being several 
extensive belts. Some 220,000 barrels of lime were manu- 
factured in the State in 1885. 

Several deposits of manganese exist in California, but 
onl}- one or two are being worked. 

Very little cement is made in the State, although there 
are deposits of hydraulic limestone, and there are two cement 
factories, one at Benicia, and one at Santa Cruz. 

The manufacture of plaster from the California gypsum 
deposits has increased of late years. Some 2,500 tons of 
gypsum were ground by the mills in San Francisco in 1885. 

Petroleum is found in Humboldt, Colusa, Contra Costa, 
Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito, Ventura and 



90 THE NE ]V EMPIRE. 

Los Angeles Counties in California. The product of the 
State has increased from 15,000 barrels in 1878 to 325,000 
barrels in 1885. 

Antimony occurs in several places in California, San 
Benito and Kern Counties each possessing producing mines. 

There are several quarries of building stones, some of 
which are being worked. 

Large quantities of salt are consumed on the Pacific 
Coast, much being needed by reduction works. In 1885 
3 1,000 tons of salt were made in California, mainly in Ala- 
meda County, on the shores of San Francisco Bay. 

A great deal of asphaltum is mined in the State, and is 
utilized at home. 

The clays are utilized by the potteries in various parts 
of the State, mainly in making the lower grades of pottery. 

The State produces about 1,200 tons of metallic copper 
per annum. 

Graphite occurs in many localities, and some few of the 
deposits are utilized. 

There is only one iron mine in the State that has been 
worked, in Placer County, but low prices in 1886 have caused 
the furnaces to be closed down. 

Among other mineral products of the State are alum, 
bismuth, iridium, platinum, lithographic stone, mica, and 
sulphur. 

SCHEDULE OF RATES OF WAGES PAID. 

PER DAV. 

Carpenters • • • $ 3 5° 

Machinists 3 25 

Sign-painters 4 oo 

Boiler-maker^ 3 50 

Tin-smiths 3 50 

Longshoremen 3 5° 

Stone and marble cutters 4 00 

Plasterers . . . , 4 5° 

Gun and locksmiths . 3 50 

Roustabouts 2 50 

Coal miners (shift work) 2 50 

Coal miners (by the yard) 3 00 to 4 5° 

Mechanical Engineers 3 00 to 4 00 

Bricklayers 5 00 

House painters 325 

Pattern-makers 3 5° • 

Shoemdkers 3 00 

Blacksmiths ■ . . . 3 50 

Day laborers 2 00 

Gas-fitters ^ 350 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 



91 



Upholsterers $ 3 50 

Boat builders 3 50 

Plumbers 4 00 

r-ER MONTH. 

Tailors $54 00 

Mill hands 60 00 

Bakers 60 00 

Farm laborers (with board) . 30 00 to 

Loggers: — 

Teamsters 40 00 to 

Choppers 65 00 to 

Skidders and hook-tenders 55 00 to 

Swampers 50 00 

Sawyers 50 00 to 

Common laborers 40 00 to 

Boys 30 00 

Cooks 50 00 

THE PRESENT CHINESE POPULATION OF THE STATE AS SHOWN BY 
ANNEXED TABLE: — 
(Compiled from Returns made by the County Assessors and County Clerks.) 



40 GO 



6S 


00 


70 


00 


60 


00 


55 


GO 


45 


GO 



County. 



Alameda . . . . 

Alpine 

Amador 

Butte 

Calaveras . . . 

Colusa 

Contra Costa 
Del Norte. . . 
EI Dorado . . 

Fresno 

Humboldt. . . 

Inyo 

Kern 

Lake 

Lassen 

Los Angeles. 

Marin 

Mariposa. . . . 
INIendocino. . 

Merced 

Modoc 

Mono 

Monteiey. . . . 

iVapa 

Nevada . . . . 

Placer 

Plumas. ... 
Sacramento . 
San Benito . . 



Population.! 



County. 



S,ooo 

1-5 

2,000 

3.000 

1,037 

1,500 

500 

300 

400 

753 
250 

50 
702 
469 

50 

5, GOO 

350 

600 

1,000 

550 
60 

363 
500 
650 

i.Soo 
2,190 

50G 
3,000 

S7 



San Bernardino. . 

San Diego 

San Francisco. . . 
San Joaquin. . . . 
.San Luis Obispo. 

San Mateo 

Santa Barbara. . . 

Santa Clara 

Santa Cruz 

Shasta 

Sierra 

Siskiyou 

Solano 

Sonoma ...... 

Stanislaus 

Sutter 

Tehama 

Trinity 

Tulare 

Tuolumne'. 

\'entura 

Yolo 

Yuba 



Population. 



Total 

Total from tenth c.nsus. 

Grand total 



371 

275 

43,000 

2,500 
196 
250 
500 

2,950 
450 

1.335 
400 

1,458 
995 

1,500 
700 
550 
774 
400 

I, coo 

500 
300 

400 

2, GOO 
90,022 

S,6iS 
98,640 



But the Chinamen are rapidly leaving- the State, and so 
not only making room but creat'ng a demand for good white 
labor. There is no countrv in the world where honest toil is 



92 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

more handsomely rewarded in proportion to the cost of living 
than in California. 

Society here is as well organized, and devoted to the 
good works which are the merit of a great people, as any- 
where in the Union. 

The climate is so full of blandishments that it tends to 
attract the best population from all parts of this country and 
Europe; and its guarantee of good health, and the enjoy- 
ment of life which it permits, its tendency to development, 
activity, and refinement, its decided effect upon the literary 
and artistic character, which it develops to a wonderful de- 
gree, will focus here the growth of art and science. 

The mineral and thermal springs of California, with 
established curative powers, and in situations unequaled in 
the romantic interest of their scenery, will one day outrival 
the great spas of Europe, to which so many sick make long 
pilgrimages. 

All of the financial, insurance, manufacturing, com- 
mercial, and rural interests and industries are here in the 
hands of the country's best enterprise and intelligence. 

San Francisco is the center of a greater whaling industry 
than New Bedford. It has the largest trade in peltries of 
fur-bearing animals and amphibia in the world. 

Ostrich farming is being rapidly transferred from South 
Africa to Southern California, where it is demonstrated to be 
a most profitable success. 

We will soon rival France and the Mediterranean slopes 
in our wine and oil trade, and our mineral interests in gold 
and silver will long' lead the world, as now. We ship thou- 
sands of car loa.s of oranges, lemons, and limes, and the 
citrus orchards are every year extended. 

In fine, no matter what a man's tastes and fanc}^ as 
to occupation, here he will find a country of opportunities, 
amongst which he is sure to make an agreeable choice; and 
his selection made, he will find in it full and happy scope 
for his most wholesome energies, with the certainty of more 
adequate reward for the efforts he invests, than any other 
country can offer. So it is that thousands have looked down 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 93 

upon this promised land, as they approached it, poor in all 
things but hope and industry, who are now affluent, and the 
stewards of a heritage of comfort for their children. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
IRRIGATION. 

SINCE the prospectus of this book was issued and sent 
East to those centers of population resorted to for informa- 
tion by intending immigrants, many inquiries have come back 
in relation to the certainties of irrigation; and since the recent 
adverse decision of the Supreme Court of California, these 
inquiries have taken a discouraged tone, which we desire to 
correct by a statement of facts. ' 

The wonderful growth and prosperity of Southern Cali- 
fornia are associated in the Eastern mind with irrigation, and 
properly so. The visitor who now revels in the luxury that 
is found at Pasadena, in the San Gabriel Valle\', at Riverside, 
Santa Ana, Anaheim, and scores of places in that section of 
the State, has only to note the parts of plain and mesa yet 
in their natural state to see the magic wrought by Water used 
for irrigation. Witness, too, the marvelous results conjured 
out of the deserts in Kern County, where irrigation has spread 
green fields of alfalfa and yellow fields of grain; where 
orchards, vineyards, fields of cotton, and the cattle fat as 
those that ran on a thousand hills, have taken the place of 
desolation, once the home of the serpent, the centipede, and 
tarantula. 

Here is the same sharp contrast so often noticed in Los 
Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties. The 
Kern irrigating system has hundreds of miles of canals and 
ditches, and the zones they irrigate are perfect pictures of 
plenty and prosperity, scented with the perfume of flowers, — 
an Arcadia, where labor is light as the leisure of life elsewhere. 
On the higher zone, above the ditch or canal, is the desert, 
thirsty, gaping, unpeopled. It is the rough diamond, with its 
beauties undeveloped; whil%, where the water has worked its 
ministry of regeneration, it is the diamond fresh from the lapi- 
dary's wheel, a thing of beauty and a joy forever. 



94 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

There be those who have explored these wonders of 
Kern, who have noted how, by seeking still higher levels for 
tapping the streams, zone after zone may be reached by the 
waters of life, who call it the foremost county in California 
in natural resources and capacity to support a dense popula- 
tion. The Eastern visitor should resort to it as an extreme 
illustration of what irrigation can do, and then should con- 
sider that if water can produce the charms, the profits, prog- 
ress, and prosperity spread abroad there, where even a cony 
could not live before, what may irrigation not do extended to 
the whole arid area of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Val- 
leys ? 

In this projected inquiry the investigator is not left with- 
out illustrations. He will find them in the Fresno colonies. 
These are oases created by irrigation. As a rule they are 
divided at right angles into twenty-acre tracts, with main 
avenues lined by palm, shade, and nut trees. 

These twenty-acre holdings are visions of the beauty of 
high farming. They have not been settled by the rich, but 
by the poor in purse. It is one of California's most promis- 
ing raisin-producing areas. The climate is warm, dry, and 
bracing; and the soil, when coaxed by water to surrender its 
treasures, proves the most generous in the world. We have 
before us the history of the Fresno colonies. After the vines 
planted on them reach three years of age, the minimum re- 
turn, net per acre, is $ioo per year, and the tillage and care of 
the crop is within reach of the members of the family. Re- 
sult: Those colonists who settled there poor, are now. in com- 
fortable circumstances. To illustrate: Nine years ago a 
Swede immigrant named Anderson landed there with a wife 
and seven children, and $75.00 in cash. He took one of these 
small tracts on credit; worked for wages while he improved 
it, and, at the end of nine years, sold his land for $12,000, 
having meantime got out of debt and supported his family 
comfortably. Talk about no chance for anybody in Califor- 
nia! Irrigation offers not chances, but certainties to a 
denser population than any of the older States can boast. 
Another Fresno case: JMiss Austin, an Oakland school- 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 95 

teacher, with health weakened by her arduous profession, 
and only $i,ooo in her pocket, went to a Fresno colony eight 
years ago and bought twenty acres. She had it planted in 
vines, and while waiting for them to bear, bought grapes of 
her neighbors, dried and packed them in neat packages, which 
gave them a special character in the market. To-day she 
owns forty acres, all improved; is out of debt, and it is safe 
to rate her worth $50,000. So I might cite case after case. 
Can they be equaled in the rural records of any of the great 
agricultural States? 

Now what has done it ? As we have explained in our 
chapter on topography, these plains and deserts have had 
washed down to them the richness of the mountains. The 
mountains are the mighty bones of the continent, and, cracked 
by past volcanoes and present beating storms, their marrow 
has run out for enrichment of the plains. All the streams 
have their final source in the mountains, and their waters 
continue to bring down this marrow, so that when irrigation 
puts them on the land, and it begins producing crops, it is 
not exhausted, for every irrigation is a process of re- fertili- 
zation of the soil. Here is no need to buy phosphates and 
guano. The dung fork is an unknown farm tool. Instead 
of buying a cart to haul a manure heap onto the land, the 
Fresno farmer can put his cash into a phaeton for his wife. 
Here, then, invoked by irrigation, is the ideal rural life. No 
prayer goes up for rain, and an overruling Providence, un- 
annoyed by being continually asked for a drink of water, 
showers unasked a thousand gifts and graces upon a people 
who make their own rain, and measure its fall upon the 
ground. Irrigation was inherited from the Spanish and 
Mexican owners of the soil. It was recognized by Federal 
law when the United States owned the streams and the land. 
When by Government patent they passed to private owner- 
ship and State jurisdiction, the right to useful appropriation 
passed too, and was for years undisputed. During those 
years there sprang into being all these impressive results 
which we have hastily sketched. No man believed otherwise 
than that his use of water for irrigation, being in line with 



96 • THE NE W EMPIRE. 

Federal policy, was in line with local law. Occasionally the 
right of riparian owners to prevent diversion from the bed of 
the stream was mooted, and the shadow of the English com- 
mon law was conjured for a temporary scare. But the irri- 
gators knew that the English common law of riparian mo- 
nopoly of the waters had been especially and specifically nulli- 
fied in every English colony and country controlled by that 
empire, whose physical features and necessities are like those 
of California, In Australia, and all her Australasian pos- 
sessions, in India and in our neighbor, British Columbia, an 
assertion of this moist country law of riparian rights would 
lose its standing in the courts in a moment. Knowing this, 
the people of California were fearless in their appropriation 
of water until, in a legal contest between men who, by costly 
and beneficent hydraulic S}-stems, had made an Eden where 
had been a desert; and other men who claimed the right, be- 
cause their lands abut the stream, to compel its waters to go 
and waste themselves in the sea, the Supreme Court of Cali- 
fornia went into the rusty locked closet of "precedent," 
brought out the fleshless skeleton of English riparian law, fit 
emblem of famine, and have tried to wave its bony hand over 
the orchards and gardens and vineyards, to wither vine and 
olive tree, and blight the grain and fruit, The result has been 
the most powerful, spontaneous, popular movement ever seen 
in this Union. It is more general than that rush to arms 
when civil war was upon the land. In all the great cities and 
in every rural community the people are banded in organi- 
zations. 

A powerfully representative State Convention held in 
San Francisco has crystallized these aroused energies, and 
guided them to aim a solid blow, whose impact no Court 
can withstand. The grievous decision of this bench was 
reached by a majority of only one vote, and in the coming 
election, without any break in the ordinary procession of 
events, this majority will sink to a minority. But the forces 
that are abroad are stronger than they need be to do only 
this. It is different from any other judicial issue. It is be- 
lieved b}' the ablest publicists in the State, and those most 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 97 

respectful to the Courts and their authority (and this belief has 
found a positive voice in the unanimous press) that the Court 
should hand its commissions back to the people from whom 
they were derived, in order that a full bench may come fresh 
from the masses to reflect the mightiest interests of the State, 
and entrench them in the law. Before the power now in- 
voked and active in every county in the State, no law imported 
from abroad, to curse our people with blight and famine, can 
stand. The measures proposed involve amendments to the 
Constitution which will grind the grinning skeleton of En- 
glish common law to powder between the upper and nether 
millstone of the public will; and they also include statutes 
which will protect, regulate, and affirm permanently the 
appropriation of water for irrigation. In all this there is to 
be no delay. The political party that stands in the way will 
get run over. The public man who opposes will wonder 
Avhat hurt him. So we say, to those Eastern readers who 
have talked of going to Colorado or Utah because there irri- 
gation is a settled policy, and offers a chance for capital to be 
safely invested in hydraulic works, and assures to land owners 
the certainty of water for their fields, " Don't be hasty; just 
bide a wee and witness the speedy and complete adjustment 
of this California issue in line with the needs of our common- 
wealth and people, and then come here." 

Following will be results which stagger prophecy. The 
water and the land will go together, and, as the limits of the 
present volume of water are reached, there will appear a 
system of storage of flood waters. The contributing canons 
in the mountains will be dammed, as is done now on all the 
rivers of New England to store water for manufacturing 
power, and as the Federal Government has done at the heads 
of the Mississippi to impound water in the spring, that the 
country below may be saved from floods, and that the river 
may be replenished at midsummer to hold it up to navigable 
stage. The field opened out here is illimitable. 

In this work hydraulic engineers will find employment, 
and in the construction of canals and ditches and dams, thou- 
sands of laborers will find remunerative work. All the industrial 



98 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

energies of the State will feel the impulse of this mip-hty 
policy, and the cities will derive from its effects a commerce 
that will spread their borders and stimulate their business to 
a prosperity unknown by the cities of the East. Here, for 
generations, will be the progressive expansion in real estate 
values and in the margins of business. The trade that will be 
inspired from this source will add value to our mines and 
timber, to our manufactures, our fisheries, and to every activ- 
ity and investment which go to make up the complex in- 
dustries of a great people. The history of mankind is that 
the highest primitive civilization was in rainless countries ca- 
pable of irrigation. This is because men there were relieved 
from the eccentricities of the seasons, and the produce of the 
soil, which is the foundation of everything, was made certain. 
We speak of our present civilization. Its remote-source was 
Egypt, irrigated by the Nile. Greece took her culture from 
the Egyptians and passed it on to the Romans, and they gave 
it to all Southern Europe, and its line of march was continu- 
ally along the zones where the soil yielded its best gifts only 
when subjected to irrigation. With that civilization so de- 
scended art and science have pitched their moving tents; 
literature and history have told its story as they moved in 
its van, and poetry has strung its harp and sung of lov-e and 
war, from the time Miriam chanted her hymn of adoration 
upon the entry of Israel into the irrigated valleys of the 
Promised Land, and David wrote in stately measure: " The 
Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to 
lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still 
waters. He restoreth my soul." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

IRRIGATION— CONTINUED. 

WE have devoted so much attention to the mechanics of 
irrigation, because useful appropriation of water in Cal- 
ifornia and, to an important degree, throughout the New 
Empire, is at the foundation of the two great industries which 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 99 

germinate the wealth of all this region. It is difficult to im- 
agine a commerce not derived from our mines or our agricult- 
ure, and unless water can be appropriated for the use of both, 
their profitable pursuit will be confined within limits so nar- 
row that it is idle to talk of them as the foundation of a great 
commonwealth. 

Without the profit of these occupations, the timber of 
our forests and the fish of our waters, which are the sole re- 
maining means of production, will not be worth the effort it 
costs to put them into commerce, and it requires no argument 
to demonstrate that with jDroduction, limited or suspended, 
transmutation and exchang:; either cease or shrink below a 
return tempting to the enterprise of men, and so our manu- 
factures, which are now greatening to the demands of a dense 
population, and have enlisted capital more upon hope and 
future promise than present profit, will decay, and their ma- 
chinery will cease its pulsation, and their fires their glow, 
while the capital that has created the manufacturing plant 
will be as completely lost as if it were in a grist mill on a 
water-power which the channel has deserted and left with no 
water to turn its turbine and buhrs. These reflections go to the 
philosophical radix of- a country's prosperity. A community 
thrives by making the best and wisest use of its natural facil- 
ities and advantages. Amongst the people of Europe the 
Swiss stand as a type of cheerfulness and patriotism. We 
seldom hear of extreme poverty amongst them, and they 
maintain in their simple forms of government the primordial 
principles which are the ultimate base of our own laws and in- 
stitutions, as they are in some respects the model of all free so- 
cieties. The Swiss are not an accident, nor are their manners 
and customs those of a people by chance light-hearted and 
prosperous. They have for centuries made the most of the' 
natural advantages furnished by their country, though these 
are {&\v in number and parsimonious in degree. They have 
carved their Alpine woods into toys of cunning form, and 
their handicraftsmen, inheriting generations of skill, have 
worked wonders in metals. The bits of grass that spring 
under the drip of glaciers have been treasured to pasture 



100 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

cows and goats, and the chalets of that land are the shelter 
of happy thrift, and her people illustrate the pleasures oi con- 
tentment. 

We have endeavored faithfully to describe the natural re- 
sources and abounding advantages of the New Empire, and 
while cold type must fail to adequately portray them all, we 
have shown them to a degree which throws in high relief the 
generosity of nature. Parsimonious to other lands, here she 
has lavished her gifts with a prodigal hand. 

Of those to whom much has been given, much is re- 
quired, and the decree cannot be escaped by our people. 
As a measure of their duty in the great question which 
concerns the availability of all these natural benefac- 
tions, we come now to consider briefly the legal aspects of 
the question of irrigation. We have shown the richness of 
the land and the abundance of water within the banks of 
streams. Our California'people are now summoned seriously 
to decide whether this State shall be a thirsty Tantalus, sunk 
to the chin in waters she is forbidden to drink, or whether law 
and nature shall be in harmony, and of the abundance she 
shall slake to her full satisfaction. We hear a deal of the 
common law. What is the common law.? It is the law of 
custom. What determines custom .'' It is shaped out of the 
physical surroundings and natural necessities of a people. 
Reduced to its simples, custom, the natural common law, dic- 
tated by physical necessity, makes an Esquimau dress in furs, 
sleep in a bag of eider duck skin, live on walrus blubber, and 
build a house as far as possible impervious to the nip and 
gnawing of an Arctic winter; while custom, the common law 
of physical necessity, makes the native of the tropics swing 
in a hammock, eat bananas, and compromise with decency in 
the lightness of his dress. Impose upon the Esquimau the 
habits of the tropics and he would be a frozen monument of 
folly or despotism in a half hour. Force the diet and dress 
of the intra-polar circle upon the native of the tropics and he 
would die loathsomely of surfeit and fever in less than a 
week. If this make plain the common law of custom, and 
that is the only common law of any country, let us suppose 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 101 

California to be a Crusoe's Island, the real terra caliente which 
the old Spaniards supposed it to be when, in default of incon- 
venient exploration, they called it an island; suppose this 
land to be settled by people who have upon them the duty 
of founding institutions, devising a polity and developing a 
jurisprudence in harmony with the physical conditions which 
set the bounds to those activities by whose practice they 
must support life; what would they do ? Does any one who 
knows the chemistry of our soils, the topography and cli- 
matology of this region, believe that an}^ one would dare pro- 
pose that the riparian owner at the mouth of a stream should 
dominate its waters clear to the mountain rills whose fila- 
ments join to make the volume of its flood, and should have 
the right to forbid that its quantity should be diminished or 
its quality deteriorated, to the least degree, but that it must 
all flow wastefully past the borders of his holding ? In the 
primitive society which we have supposed to exist, there 
would be instant revolt at such a proposition, and the prin- 
ciple behind it would be held a petty treason to the inchoate 
commonwealth, and why? Obviously because the concensus 
of horse sense in the community would instantly discern the 
inharmony between such a rule of riparian regulation and the 
law of natural necessity, the voluntary custom, compelled by 
the physical conditions under which these people must live, 
and from which there is no escape until the god of bounds 
grows weary of watchfulness, and natural law is lost in a con- 
vulsion which issues in chaos. To force such a rule upon a 
people, situated as those of California are, is like the ex- 
change of customs between the tropics and the Arctic circle. 
Supposing this people to be free agents, we would find them 
devising just regulations by which water and land shoyld be 
brought together, to secure that certainty in returns of rural 
industry which is the strongest incentive to labor, since it is 
true that the arm of the sower is strengthened by the cer- 
tainty that he is to reap; and a tree is planted, watched, and 
tended with more refined care, when the laborer who does it 
knows that its fruits are for the pleasure of his own palate, 
and not so remote in their coming that they are to be enjoyed 



102 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

by another. So this people would write first in their statutes 
that the use of water should fix the right to it, and that each 
user should have no right to a drop beyond what he needed, 
and that with cessation of use his right ceased, and became 
subject to appropriation by another for devotion to a useful 
purpose. Out of this customary law, this evolution from 
natural necessities, would spring a system of rules and regu- 
lations framed in regard to the rights of all, and so 
shaped as to make every drop of water useful upon every 
acre of land upon which hydraulic engineering could 
carry it, and this whole system of rules and regulations 
would be the common law of California upon the mat- 
ter of useful appropriation of water. We are sure that the 
reason and reasonableness of this need no further demonstra- 
tion. Having shown how the customary law would have 
naturally developed straightly along the line of the right of 
useful appropriation of water, let us exchange hypothesis 
for history, and see what was done by the people who first 
assumed the duty of founding this commonwealth. The 
pioneer laborer here, after the conquest, was the miner. He 
at once became an appropriator of water, without which the 
pursuit of his calling was impossible. Mining in gulches and 
canons, at the mouths and far up the course of. streams, below 
the level of lakes, and under the spill of mountain springs, each 
camp made its own law of the distribution of water, the mod- 
ifications of prior right necessary to full development of the 
diggings, and such other matters as were necessary to the 
common use of this requisite agent in that industry. As a 
result there grew up the customary law of useful appropria- 
tion of water to the primary industry of the State. The 
Legislature of California, called to the duty of drawing 
around mining the circle of statute law, decreed that in all 
actions at law, concerning mines and miners' rights, the local 
regulations, the customary law of the mining district, should 
be the rule of decision for the guidance of the court. Here 
was the germ of the common law of California. Custom 
had laid down the law of location of mining claims, and 
custom had appropriated the water necessary to their opera- 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 103 

tion, and the Legislature directed the courts to consider this 
customary law as their rule of decision. Now bear in mind 
that the Legislature had also, following the custom of senior 
States, enacted that the common law of England, where con- 
sistent with the constitution and laws of this State, should be 
the rule of decision in all the courts of this State, but the law 
of mining locations and water rights thereon, as declared 
by the same Legislature, was not consistent with the English 
common law of riparian rights, and therefore the customary 
law of the miners took precedence of the English common 
law, and was made the rule of decision for the courts. 

This principle has subsisted, undisputed and undisturbed, 
from 1850 until the recent decision of the Supreme Court of 
the State. Perhaps it is not fair to say that it was undis- 
puted and undisturbed, since its validity and authority were 
practically affirmed by that adverse pos.session which is a 
vital point in the iaw of tital by occupancy. Whenever the 
right of useful appropriation was assailed, it was maintained 
by. our local courts, and it was affirmed and acquiesced in by 
the Federal and State Governments. In 1866, Congress for 
the first time legislated upon the subject. Sixteen years be- 
fore, the State of California had made customary law the 
rule of decision for the State courts, and now her example 
was adopted as the Federal law, and made the rule of decis- 
ion for the Federal courts, by this statute: "Whenever by 
priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, 
agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested 
or accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged 
by the local customs, laws, and decisions of the courts, the 
possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be main- 
tained and protected in the same." The first case that went 
to the bar" of the Federal Supreme Court under that statute 
was Atchison vs. Peterson. Opinion by Mr. Justice Field, 
who was the author of the original law of California, making 
the customary law of mining districts the rule of decision of 
our State Courts. In this case he wrote this judgment of the 
Supreme Court: "By the cnstont which has obtained amongst 
miners in the Pacific States and Territories, where mining for 



104 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

the precious metals is had upon the public lands of the United 
States, the first app'ropriator of mines or of waters in the 
streams upon such lands for mining purposes, is held to have 
a better right than others to work the mines or use the waters. 
As respects the use of water for mining purposes, the doc- 
trines of the English common law, declaratory of the rights of 
riparian owners, were, at an early day after the discovery of 
gold, found to be inapplicable, or applicable only in a very 
limited extent, to the necessities of miners and inadequate to 
their protection." The learned Justice then projects his argu- 
ment into a demonstration that the appropriation of water for 
beneficial use had always " been heartily encouraged by the 
legislative policy of the State." Again, in the case of Basey 
vs. Gallagher, the Supreme Court of the United States, by 
Justice Field, referring to its prior decision in Atchison vs. 
Peterson sdi\d: "The views then expressed and the rulings 
made are equally applicable to the*use of water on the pub- 
lic lands for the purposes of irrigation. No distinction is 
made in the Pacific States and Territories by the cnstoni of 
miners or settlers, or by the courts, in the rights of the first 
appropriator, from the nse made of water, if the use be a 
beneficial one. In the case of Tartar vs. Spring Creek Water 
and Mining Company, decided in 1855, the Supreme Court of 
California says: ' The current of decisions of this Court go 
to establish that the policy of this State, as derived from hfer 
legislation, is to permit settlers in all capacities to occupy the 
public lands, and by such occupation to acquire the right of 
undisturbed enjoyment against all the world but the true 
owner. In evidence of this, acts have been passed to protect 
the possession of agricultural lands acquired by mere occu- 
pancy; to license miners; to provide for the recovery of min- 
ing claims; recognizing canals and ditches which were known 
to divert the water of streams from their natural channels 
for mining purposes; and others of like character. This policy 
has been extended equally to all pursuits, and no partiality 
for one over the other has been evinced, except in the single 
case where the rights of the agriculturist have been made to 
yield to the miner where gold is discovered in his land. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 105 

Aside from this, the legislation and decisions have been uni- 
form in awarding the right of peaceable enjoyment of the 
first occupant, either of the land or of anything incident to 
the land.' Ever since that decision it has been held generally 
throughout the Pacific States and Territories that the right 
to water by prior appropriation for any beneficial purpose is 
entitled to protection. Water is diverted to propel machinery 
in flour-mills and saw-mills, and to irrigate land for cultiva- 
tion, as well to enable miners to work their mining claims, 
and in all such cases the right of the first appropriator exer- 
cised within reasonable limit is respected and enforced." 
Here, then, we have unmistakable recognition of the right of 
useful appropriation of water, asserted by and confirmed to 
the miners of this State, and as unmistakably we have the 
judicial metastasis of that right to the irrigator of agricultural 
lands, by an ascription as plain as legal reasoning can make 
it. The reports are crammed beyond the space at our dis- 
posal to digest, with decisions following the unvaried line of 
customary law as originated by the people of California in 
the necessities of those physical conditions peculiar to the 
State. This custom made the common law which the Legis- 
lature ordered the courts to make the rule of decision, instead 
of the conflicting common law of England, and under that 
custom appropriators' rights held adverse possession against 
riparian rights for thirty-six years of the legislative and judi- 
cial history of the State. It has become as much a part of 
popular rights and as entrenched in the public thought, and 
habit and custom as the right of trial by jury, the liabeas 
corpus, or the elective franchise, and the recent decision, 
secured by a majority of one of the State Supreme Court, is 
as rude a blow in the face of public opinion as the court could 
have struck if it had swept trial by jury, habeas corpus, and 
the elective franchise into the abyss of a common ruin. 

It is such a decision that has shaken the foundation of 
parties; that has engulfed all other public issues; that has 
painfully shadowed thousands of homes in the Sacramento 
and San Joaquin Valleys and Southern California; that has 
warned wholesale merchants in the city of the uncertainty of 



106 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

outstanding country credits and the instability of future 
trade; that has admonished railroads of a decreasing tonnage, 
their stockholders of diminishing dividends, their bondhold- 
ers of defaulted interest, and that has notified city bankers 
that country loan accounts on real estate security are to 
be worth less than the paper spoiled in writing out the mort- 
gage which did cover productive lands of marvelous fertility, 
transformed, by this judicial evil genius of the State, into a 
desert. No people ever permitted such a decision to stand, 
nor let the customary law, of thirty-six years' beneficial 
existence, perisli by judicial assassination. No means known 
to the law and its processes, provided to reduce the judiciary 
to a condition of harmony with the physical necessities of 
the people, will be omitted during the pendency of this con- 
test, and when it is over, the customary law of California will 
sit on the seat of authority, crowned and sceptered with 
supreme power, while the English common law of riparian 
rights will be returned to its own country as we send back 
pauper and criminal immigrants, who are not the material 
for p-ood citizens. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

FRESNO COUNTY. 

ONE needs to take a physic of figures to realize that Cali- 
fornia ranks next to Texas in size. Within its bor- 
ders is room for three and one-half States the size of Iowa; 
England and Wales could be spread here and only cover one- 
fourth of the State, and whole States could be hidden inside 
some of its counties. Fresno County is an example, not only 
of area, elbow-room galore, but of a variety in soil and sur- 
face, mountain and plain, field and forest, vale and intervale 
and foot-hill, which equip it with all the physical characteristics 
and resources needed to make an independent political com- 
munity. On the continent of Europe are independent na- 
tionalities that would not make one of its townships. 

Fresno has an area of 5,600,000 acres; Rhode Island 
has 835,840 acres; so that Fresno could make six States as 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 107 

large as Rhode Island and leave a strip of 584,960 acres over 
for "cabbage." Delaware has 1,356,800 acres, so that Fresno 
County would hold four States like Delaware, with a margin 
of 172,800 acres left over for a nest-egg. Rhode Island 
and Delaware combined, have 2,192,640 acres, and both of 
them could be dumped into Fresno County twice and leave 
1,214,720 acres over. 

Switzerland is less than twice as large as Fresno, and 
twice Fresno would make another Denm.ark, with a respecta- 
ble lap over. It is two-thirds the size of Holland and more 
than two-thirds that of Belgium. This lesson in size is need- 
ful, not merely to stimulate the territorial pride of Fresno's 
people, but to show them, and those who are to be of them, 
the great future that may be wrought out of such an area of 
such land as this county has. It is part of the San Joaquin 
Valley, and is traversed by the San Joaquin and King's Rivers, 
which rise in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the east side, 
and are fed to a perpetual flow by the rains ofthe wet season 
and the melting mountain snows of the dry. These streams 
furnish abundant water, and their delta especially offers un- 
surpassed facilities for irrigation ; while the whole plain surface 
ofthe county is so situated that it may nearly all be reached 
by h}'draulic works. On the west the Coast Range rises 
against the Pacific and shuts out the fogs from the sea. On 
the east, within the county line, is much of the most interest- 
ing of the high Sierra chain„ Here are Mt. Whitney, Mt. 
Goddard and Mt. Lyell, amongst the loftiest peaks on the 
continent; Whitney rising to over 17,000 feet, and rearing his 
cloud-defying crest to the storms far above Mt. Washington 
and the noted peaks of the White Mountains and the Apa- 
lachian chain. Cradled between the Sierras and the coast 
range lies Fresno Felix, once tramped by bands of wild horses 
and cattle and bleating flocks but rapidly changing under the 
magic of emigration and enterprise into a densely populated 
and rich region. 

Out of its two rivers the clear rnountain water, that 
sparkles with the sunshine it caught glinting through the 
pines and lofty cedars that flaunt their foliage far up the 



108 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

mountain, is taken in canal and ditch; and wherever it goes, 
grass and grain, grapes and olives, fruits and flowers, happy 
homes and wholes .me i^eople, are in its train. The sun of 
Fresno sought long the lucky sign. Around and round the 
zodiac it went in quest of the spell that should give to this 
great county a vision of the destiny it seemed to merit, and 
at last it stood still in the sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer. 
True, the Supreme Court of California has put its legal hand- 
spike into the spokes of the zodiac, to turn it back so that 
Fresno shall b^ again under the sign of Taurus, or Capicoi- 
nus or Aries; but this will never be. Bull and ram have Jiad 
their day on the dry plains, and Fresno will continu ^ to con- 
quer in the sign of the water-bearer. 

Fresno copied the colony system of Southern California, 
and it has now, in productive operation, the Walters Colony, 
and the Scandinavian, Nevada, Fresno, Malaga, Central, Wash- 
ington, New England, Belfast, Norris, Sierra Park, and Witham 
Colonies. It boasts also the celebrated Barton, Risen, Eggers> 
Goodman, Forsyth, and Wood worth, Easterby, Mather and 
Fresno and Butler Vineyards, and the McNeil, Creek and 
other well-known commercial orchards. The capital, Fresno 
City, is about 200 miles by railroad from San Francisco, and 
has suddenly sprung into a well-built cit)' of 4,000 people, and 
is growing with the rapid growth of the country around it. 

Now, when we tell how this county has so suddenly 
supplemented its large size by great development, we tell the 
story of many other counties in California, as it is T|Vritten 
already, or is to be writ in a speedy future. People re- 
sorted to the twenty-acre tracts of irrigable lands in Fresno, 
bought them on credit largely, put up a house, planted some 
alfalfa, kept a cow or two, built an adobe milk house, got some 
chickens, planted some vegetables and berries, and having 
begun by these means the process of self-support, devoted 
themselves to putting the rest c^ their twenty acres into vine- 
yard and orchard. The vines, at three years from planting, 
began to yield, and thence on they yielded an income of from 
$100 to $300 per acre. That is all there is of it. The owner 
of twenty acres su-^mr''-- 'rs family and puts in bank, every 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 109 

year, $1,500 to $2,000. In the agricultural States of the East 
he would not do that on a half-section of land. Here he is 
in a winterless country, with two seasons, the wet and dry. 
The first is spring, the second is summer. It is the ideal 
raisin climate. The air is dry, the sunshine converts the 
sweet juices of the grape into that spicy jelly which is the 
test of this king of dried fruits, and though the days are hot, 
at night the cool winds come down from the snow-capped 
mountains, and the farmer is called from labor to the refresh- 
ment of sleep in blankets. 

We treat Fresno at length, as a typical valley county, 
illustrating the results of industry and irrigation. For field 
crops it produces wheat, corn, Egyptian corn, potatoes, sweet 
potatoes, peanuts, sorghum cane, and its orchards are made 
up of pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, prunes, plums, or- 
anges, lemons, and the olive. The wines of the county have 
already established a high character. Now what more do 
you want? Immortality? it must be in the impression your 
stout hand writes upon this enduring page which Nature has 
opened to record the exploits of thrifty men. 



CHAPTER XX. 

TULARE COUNTY. 

THIS is the fourth county in California in size. It lies 
midway down the San Joaquin Valley, in the middle of 
that great pocket which is turned upside down to empty its 
contents into San Francisco. South of it, in the bottom of the 
pocket, is Kern County, and north of it is Fresno, which it 
resembles in its mountain boundaries and topography. Its 
hydrography, however, is peculiar to itself The waters of 
King's, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers flow in Tulare. 
These rivers and streams head in the Sierras, and during 
the dry season are fed to flood height by the melting snows. 
There seems to be some providential interposition in this fact, 
some law older than the common law of England, for the 
flood of mountain water fills the streams at the seasons agri- 



110 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

culture and horticulture most need irrigation. As the riparian 
rule is finally relaxed, and we have law fitted to our natural 
conditions, the flood waters of the rainy season and the melt- 
ing season will all be impounded behind dams at their 
mountain source at proper intervals along all these streams^ 
and then its volume will be found ample for perfect irrigation 
of every part of this noble principality upon which a home 
can be founded. There is nothing stronger than man's 
attachment to old ideas. The farmer who carried his grist 
in one end of the sack, balanced by a stone in the other, 
is not a mere figure of speech. The history of various 
useful inventions proves this farmer to be no myth. Wit- 
ness the model of the first reaping machine, which was a 
great disk with scythes set in its rim, to which it was intended 
should be given the motion which the hand cradler gave his 
scythe through its snath. The inventor could not give up the 
idea of reproducing the manual motion, but he was followed 
by one who thought out the sickle bar, with its tcctiicd 
guards and reciprocal motion, and the problem was solved. 
So the m.odel of the first threshing machine is an affair run 
by oxen in a tread-mill and arranged to fling flails, in imita- 
tion of the manual motion given that primitive implement on 
the threshing-floor. When this clumsy machine was set go- 
ing, by some twist in a belt or squint in a cog-wheel the flails 
turned upon the oxen and beat their horns off. It was a fail- 
ure, but soon a man who could put old ideas behind him, in- 
vented the toothed cylinder with its complementary concave, 
and the flail went to join the scythe in disuse. So it was the 
old idea that we brought from England, that the soil must be 
moistened by rain, and that rivers are for navigation, fish, 
v/ater-povver, and drainage purposes. To use the water for 
irrigation has even been held by many good people to be sac- 
rilegious, and in one New England church the digging of 
a canal was opposed, because it was said that where God in- 
tended water to be there he had put rivers and springs, and 
only a man of sin would defy Divinity by moving to amend 
in any way the arrangements of Providence. One brother, 
who had an interest in the canal, carried it by quoting script- 
ure, " And Jacob digged a well." 



THE NEW EMPIRE. Ill 

So the pioneer irrigators of California had to fight the 
tradition that the plains where Providence withheld its water- 
ing pot had upon them the primal curse of barrenness. It 
was the same as if man's dominion had ceased at the sea- 
shore, and he had never built a ship for discovery of what lay 
below the ocean horizon. The irrigator remembered that rain 
fell on his father's fields, and when it failed then crops were 
gnawed by the drought, and had this memory dominated 
him he would never have digged a canal nor brought land and 
water together, subject to his will. 

Tulare has 4,100,000 acres of land. The quality on the 
east side, near the Sierra foot-hills, is gravelly and adapted 
by irrigation to fruit culture. Within a few miles, upon 
the plain, it changes to a dark, sandy loam, a " quick " soil 
which gains in richness continually as the river bottom and 
deltas are approached. Scattered over the county are alkali 
lands, once thought to be worthless, but proved by cultiva- 
tion to be strong and excellent soils. Tulare used to be a 
"cow county," given up to bands of live stock, and supposed 
to be worthless for agriculture. The late Col. John C. Hays, 
the Texan ranger and one of the most charming characters 
in all our frontier history, was one of the earliest believers in 
the capacity of this county, and he did much to encourage 
the prosperity which is now coming to its hardy people. Its 
productions are the same range as those of Fresno, and it has 
the same capacity for supporting a dense population on small 
holdings under the colony system; but it wiH probably remain 
the seat of a vast grain production much longer than its 
neighbors, Kern and Fresno; and its live stock interests, sup- 
ported by alfalfa, will always be among the permanencies of 
the county. 

Now, how can we impress a home-seeker with the oppor- 
tunities which await him in Tulare? The prevalent Eastern 
idea is that there is no new country in California. This State 
began to be talked of during the war with Mexico, while 
Iowa was a Territory, and before Minnesota, Kansas, and 
Nebraska were organized as Territories. To the Eastern 
fancy, unenlightened by exploration, the process of occupying 



112 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

our lands has been concurrent with the occupation of those 
of Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska, and if so, they 
are all taken, and no virgin soil offers fresh opportunity to the 
new settler. But these Eastern people forget that so far as 
occupying the soil for tillage is concerned, California is now, 
in 1886, about where Iowa and all that region was in 1856 
Why, it is only within five years that the large land-holders 
of Fresno began to divide their estates and part with their 
principalities to make a chance for colonial settlement; and 
these lands, which in their raw state five years ago were to be 
had for $2.50 per acre, are to-day paying their tillers interest 
on a valuation of $200 per acre and upwards. Now this pro- 
cess is just beginning in Tulare, with the same climate, a soil 
of equal character, and, as we have said, a hydrography 
that is ample for perfect irrigation; and men who have 
witnessed the mighty things wrought in Fresno are rapidly 
seeking locations in Tulare, for twenty-acre tracts can be 
had there now for $250, of which $50 is paid down, and 
the balance in monthly installments of $10. A laboring man 
ought to soon save up $50, and he ought to earn a surplus of 
$10 per month for twenty months to secure a home in Tulare. 
After that, with the land under his feet for a basis of credit, 
he ought to be able to plant some alfalfa, get a hog, a cow, 
some chickens, and a shanty to begin on, and he ought in a 
i^sN years to be independent. They have done it m Fresno on 
an original cost twice as great, and many a twenty-acre tract 
there begun just this way, is now worth anywhere from $4,000 
to $8,000. The pioneer in the upper Mississippi Valley, who 
faced hail and lightning and cyclone and rain all summer, 
and an arctic temperature all winter, met more obstacles and 
endured more hardships in any one month of his novitiate 
than a new settler will find in five whole years in Tulare, and 
by that time he should be in the way, off the produce of 20 
acres, of putting $1,000 a year in bank, over and above all 
the expenses of his family. If a settler on a quarter-section 
in the prairie region east of the Rocky Mountains, is able to do 
this much after twenty years of hard toil, he is in luck. That 
it is done on four years' developments in California we can prove 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 113 

by cases so numerous that the citation would fill this book 
from lid to lid; but this is not a real estate circular, and we 
give only outline facts that can be certificated over and over 
again. 

By this time the reader wants to know how the name 
Tulare is pronounced, for " he wants to go there too," 

To try Tulare, 
Bright and airy, 
Where the fairy 

Might herself find a home. 

Where no frost nor snow, 
Nor icicles grow, 
And gentle winds blow, 
For cyclones never come. 

Visalia is the county seat, but Tulare City and Hanford 
are thriving towns, and reached through the Southern Pacific 
Railroad system. 



CHAPTER XXL 

KERN COUNTY. 



THE San Joaquin Valley is the valley of the Nile in min- 
iature. Its lower»portion, approaching the Bay of San 
Francisco, was originally susceptible of grain production, in 
most seasons without irrigation; but as you ascend the valley 
it grows more arid until in Kern County, at the extreme tip 
of the pocket, you have reached the Soudan of this little 
Egypt. It was, for the most part, originally desert, much 
like that hopeless stretch between Wady Haifa and Uganda, 
down which Chinese Gordon rode camel-back to Khartoum, 
and out of which, disembodied, he took a mount behind 
Death, on the pale horse. True, Kern has valleys, and they 
were early occupied, but this occupation gave the county 
but little importance. Between Kern River Slough and the 
old channel of that river is a great delta, that had been an 
impediment to the development of the county. It was arid, 
desert-like, hard to traverse, a little Sahara, dry, thirsty, and 
as unprofitable a part of the footstool as could be found. This 
unpromising delta was occupied by J. B. Haggin & W. B. Carr, 
the first men to extensively and comprehensively apply irriga- 



114 



THE KE \V EMPIRE. 



tion to redemption of lands so extremely lost in the original 
sin of unfruitfulness as to require more faith than would move 
mountains to back up an effort for their redemption. Any 
man who wishes to indulge in the most fascinating study of 



t 




HEAD OF KERN RIVER. 



this question that can be made in the world, should go to the 
results in Kern Count}% and the means by which they were 
accomplished. Poetry has exhausted its metaphors on the 
sculptor whose voluptuous fancy sees a Venus in the rough 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 115 

block of marble, and whose hand delivers her from its im- 
prisonment, but a far finer subject is offered in the men who 
saw in this gleaming desert, farms, vineyards, orchards, and 
homes, shade and shelter, flowers and fruits, as the concrete 
of those visions with which the glimmering mirage had lured 
the traveler to disappointment. The canals and ditches of 
this system have carried water far out upon the plains, and 
wherever they go green fields and prosperity have followed. 
We have spoken of the San Joaquin Valley as a pocket. It 
is, and so is the Sacramento Valley. They lie in each groin 
of the State and are open toward San Francisco. Kern is at 
the bottom of one pocket, and as the coin is always found at 
the bottom of the purse, here it is. The county is a most 
interesting region. Dairies and stock farms lie green and 
cozy under its ditches. Its productions run from cotton 
through all the cereals, fruits and grasses, to root crops. Its 
irrigation facilities already in operation supply 677,000 acres- 
Some of its canals are 150 feet wide, and so this Soudan of 
the San Joaquin Valley has been conquested, and the peace- 
ful conquerors have occupied it, and the commerce of San 
Francisco rattles the consequent coin in the bottom of this 
right-hand pocket of the State. 

Mountains are on three sides of Kern. The Sierra 
Nevadas meet the Coast Range at an obtuse angle, and their 
spurs push far out upon the plain, great buttresses and pilas- 
ters holding up the granite wall, which rises from 2,000 to 
5,000 feet on all sides but the north. Kern is the ultima 
TJmle of the San Joaquin. Passing its mountain sentinels, 
you go into another region, with its own mountain and river 
system and its physical peculiarities; but Nature dictated that 
from Kern the flow of wealth which the industry of man 
shall generate, should run to the Golden Gate. 

The area of the county is 5,137,920 acres. Its capital, 
the Khartoum of this regenerated Soudan, is Bakersfield. 
Within its great borders the colony system is fast making 
its way. Mr. B. Marks, of San Francisco, has brought to 
bear, upon the problem of colony location, his great ex- 
perience acquired in other parts of the San Joaquin Valley; 



116 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

and from this time the resources of this distant contributor 
to the common wealth will be rapidly developed, as its merits 
are made known to those who seek such a happy combina- 
tion of climate and soil, and love the wedding garlands which 
festoon the marriage bed of land and water. 
FRESNO, TULARE AND KERN. 

We have dealt with the three great counties, Fresno, 
Tulare and Kern, in a group because their characteris- 
tics are harmonious, and the people who are and who are to 
be in possession of their soil and in enjoyment of their climate, 
will find themselves so affected by common interests as to 
keep step with each other in nearly all matters material to their 
welfare. 

Together this group of irrigable counties presents an ag- 
gregate area of 14,837,920 acres. It has within its limits the 
climate of Italy, the scenery of Switzerland and it throws 
the products of Southern Europe, while its homes are bcwered 
in the surroundings of semi-tropical Asia. Measured in 
square miles, the area of this trinity of counties is 23,184, 
Belgium is only half as large, and has a population of 5,800,- 
000. Denmark is only two-thirds as large, and has 2,038,000 
people. Greece, with the islands and Thessaly, has the same 
area, with 2,120,000. Holland is only half as large, and has 
4,280,000. Switzerland is only two-thirds as large, and has 
2,930,000. These counties are half as large as England, with 
27,500,000 population, and they lack but little of being as 
large as Scotland, with 3,900,000 people, or Ireland, with 
4,950,000. So it will be seen that these counties are not 
crowded, for they do not yet contain 75,000 people; but as 
almost their entire irritable area can comfortably support a 
family on each twenty acres, it will be seen that this is 
destined to be the most densely populated, as it is naturally 
the most fruitful, part of the continent. 

Why should not a proper circulation of the tidings of 

promise rapidly fill such a region with a prosperous people? 

Ten years ago there had been no appreciable beginning 

made in Fresno, Tulare and Kern. Now they are dotted 

with settlements which demonstrate their capacities. Ten. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 117 

years hence they will be known for their progress and thrift. 
Threading them runs the Southern Pacific Railroad, and it will 
soon bristle with side lines and feeders. 

Why should people snub such a country to go to Aus- 
tralia, toward which so many colonists longingly look ? The 
London Standard in a late issue says that South Australia 
has just raised another large loan, which makes her the peer 
of Queensland and New Zealand in the burden of public debt, 
which now averages in the three colonies from $250 to $300 
per head of population ! On top of this comes the news 
from Sydney that the deficiency in the exchequer for the past 
year is $8,500,000, which is to be met by the imposition of a 
larger land taxation, an income tax and an additional tariff 
of 5 per cent ad valorem upon imports ! 

California is the rival of British Australasia as a field for 
colonization. Here is no crushing debt, no increasingr land 
and income tax, no progressive deficiency in public finances 
to be made good by wringing the withers of labor and robbing 
production of its profits. Our public debts are decreasing, 
our taxes growing less per capita. The contrast blows its 
own trumpet. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 
LOS ANGELES, SAN BERNARDINO, AND SAN DIEGO. 

SOUTHERN California! Books and poems have been 
written and lies have been told about it. In the Eastern 
fancy it is of dreamy outline, and all manner of tales go 
touching its crops, its climate, and its people. 

We have grouped the three great counties of the San 
Joaquin Valley together, for Kern, Tulare, and Fresno are 
joined in the same destiny, thrive or shrink together; and the 
wealth that is in them waiting for thrift and enterprise to de- 
velop it, goes directly to San Francisco. In one respect these 
counties and all those of the San Joaquin and others in all 
parts of the State have common cause with Southern Cali- 



1 1 8 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

fornia, with that part of the State below the pocket of which 
Kern is the bottom. Irrigation is the tie between the three 
great counties of the south, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, 
and San Diego; and the rest of California, albeit their 
wealth is not poured primarily into the lap of San Francisco, 
but is going into the building up of a new Baltimore and 
Philadelphia. We would call Los Angeles a Pacific Chicago, 
except that its name might be at odds with the designation, 
if we take into consideration the reputation for other things 
than enterprise which distant people ascribe to the City of the 
Lake. But it must be remembered that a city resembles a 
man, in this, that success is supposed, by the ignorant, to im- 
ply a knowledge of magic and the black arts, when, in fact, 
success comes of knowing and minding your own business. 

Los Angeles County has been a marvel of progress and 
enterprise. In some of her older wineries are wines from 
vines that were planted, cultivated, and had their grapes 
picked and pressed by Indian labor, employed by the early 
settlers. From such a beginning she now possesses the great- 
est winery in the world, which, under the management of itS' 
executive head, Mr. J. De Barth Shorb, turns out annually 
the largest number of gallons made in one establishment 
under one head. In the Nadeau Vineyard she now has also 
the largest vineyard in one body, under one ownership, in the 
world. The territory which now makes this county was set- 
tled in 1771, at San Gabriel, by the mission fathers. At the 
conquest, the pueblo of Los Angeles was the Mexican capital, 
and there the last Mexican Governor, Don Pio Pico, still lives, 
verging upon a hundred years old. He is the Petrus Stuy- 
vesant of his people, for old Peter, when compelled to give 
up New Amsterdam to the English, took his revenge by 
chopping down the English cherry trees in front of his house 
and refusing to learn the English language. Don Pio is a 
monument to the pride and steadfastness of the Mexican 
character, and is an interesting and suggestive figure of the 
past, in the midst of the surging life and vital enterprise of 
the present. Los Angeles County is withm a third as large 
as the State of Massachusetts, having 3,600,000 acres. Its 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 119 

southern boundary is San Diego County and the Pacific 
Ocean, on the north is Kern; on the east, San Bernardino, 
on the west, the Pacific again and Ventura County. The 
bounds fixed for it by nature, wKich determine its climate 
and enrich it with great capacities, are the mountains and the 
ocean. You leave the bottom of the San Joaquin pocket, 
cross the Tehachepi Mountains, which connect -the Sierra 
Nevadas and Coast Range, and after passing such marvelous 
triumphs of civil engineering as the Loop, where the railroad 
crosses itself to climb the difficulties of grade, you slip down 
into the verdant, blooming, and teeming meadows of a coun- 
try that has upon one side the Sierra Madre Mountains, and on 
the other the sea. This is Los Angeles County. Here were 
laid the foundations of the New California. Here the prob- 
lems of irrigation were worked out for the benefit of the 
whole State, and here was developed an orange belt which 
is to supply 60,000,000 of people with citrus fruits in the in- 
terval between the Florida and Italy crops. Here the grasses 
flourish, from those which herds graze or pasture, to wheat, 
rye, barley, and the noblest grass of all, Indian corn. Beans 
and potatoes, the sugar beet and all root crops, clover, hemp, 
flax, melons, pumpkins, and berries reach a perfection pos- 
sible only to such a soil and sun, joined to useful irrigation. 
But a few years ago this was a cow county, where the hold- 
ers of old Spanish grants lived the ideal ranche life, with 
their haciendas, the home of all their people and dependents, 
as was the castle of a Scottish chief the home of his clan 
two hundred years ago. Here the major domosaw to it that 
none who belonged'below the salt should sit above it at table, 
and in the dreams which whiled away each siesta the then 
lords of the soil saw no vision of what was to be. Into this 
land of the lotus eaters came the enterprise of the immigrant 
and capitalist. The dry plains and mesas which had grudged 
a lean pasture to sheep and cattle were transformed, as by 
magic, into orange groves and vineyards. The waters of the 
Rivers San Gabriel, Santa Ana, and Los Angeles were har- 
nessed to the plow, and the attractions of climate were soon 
supplemented by the verdure and fruit of our enlivened land- 



120 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

scape; and the result is a delicious series of rural settlements, 
than which nothing can be more attractive The shores of 
the Mediterranean have nothing to offer that can surpass th^ 
blandishments here, except historical associations, and what 
does the dreamer in a Los Angeles hammock care if he can- 
not look out upon the scene of the Sabine rape; and does the 
vineyardist of San Gabriel, or the orange farmer of Pasadena, 
enjoy less the profits that come out of the soil because it was 
not fattened by the dust and bones of noble Romajis ? 
Around the Mediterranean such scenery and its historical as- 
sociations are partners with age and industrial decay. Com- 
merce left those shores and sailed out between the Pillars of 
Hercules long ago. Here in Los Angeles is the thriving, 
bustling capital of that name, a marvel of trade and activity, 
with its markets dealing in the fruits, wines and oils, nuts 
and raisins, figs and pomegranates, which we associate 
with our ideas of the trade of Palermo and Nice. Around 
it, as mountain snuggeries, or seaside resorts, or jewels set in 
plain or foot-hill, are San Fernando, Pasadena, Sierra Madre 
Villa, San Gabriel, El Monte, Duarte, Azusa, San Pedro, 
Santa Monica, Santa Ana, Spadra, Downey, Cerritos, and 
other suburbs and rural places and colonies, each with its own 
attractions, as in a family of sisters each may have graces of 
her own that detract nothing from the rest, but give her zest 
in the eyes and arms of her lover. 

The first impress made by civilization here, as we have 
said, was at San Gabriel Mission, from which all that is now 
Los Angeles County was ruled. Referring to the ancient 
mission census, we find that under the padres the county had 
105,000 head of cattle, 20,000 horses and mules, 40,000 sheep 
and goats, and produced 20,000 bushels of grain in a year. 
It was truly a cow county, but how surprised the pious 
fathers would be at the change that has come over their graz- 
ing grounds. By the assessment of 1885 it had 27,070 head 
of cattle, 15,568 horses and mules, but it had ostriches on the 
plume-raisijig farm at. Anaheim; it produced wine to the value 
of $5,400,000; it exported 139,000 boxes of superb raisins; it 
filled about half of the 1,000 car loads of Southern California 



THE NEW EMPIRE, 121 

oranges that went east to be sucked by our countrymen; it 
exported to Europe 20,042,397 centals of wheat; and its pop- 
ulation of about 100,000 is increasing so rapidl}', through the 
channels provided by nature and immigration, that it is haz- 
ardous to venture figures. 

San Bernardino has many characteristics in common 
with Los Angeles, and San Diego, with its imperial area of 
fifteen millions of acres it is capable of the happiest trans- 
figuration by irrigation and enterprise. These three make up 
that Southern California — that land of the orangeand the vine — 
which has a magnetic fame that reaches around the world. 
In London we have heard a noble lady say, "I vuist see 
Southern California again," and in Paris a blase x'm.w of the 
world cried out in its praise, " Ah ! how like France ! " 

This part of California is what all the State is to be. Be 
sure of it, the results that have been conjured by enterprise 
in this fairy land are, like faith, the substance of things 
hoped for all over California, and, with harmony between 
natural necessity and statute law, the hope will prove to have 
been not in vain. 



r 



CHAPTER XXI 11. 

MERCED COUNTY. 

ONSIDERING the richly-lined pocket of the San Joa- 
\j quin Valley, the counties that lie above Fresno have 
peculiarities that are notable. The first is Merced, with an 
area of 1,155,336 acres, of which three-fourths is susceptible 
of profitable cultivation. The capacity of Merced has been 
shown in those seasons of abundant rain-fall which have given 
the soil all that it needs of water to show its fertility. • In 
seasons of low rain-fall, production recedes, and the margin 
between shows the value of permanent irrigation applied to 
the acreage already under tillage. Take this margin of dif- 
ference upon the produce of one acre and multiply it by the 
irrigable acreage of the county, and you get the annual money 
value of irrigation to this one county. In a season of full 



122 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

rain-fall the average yield of wheat is 30 bushels to the acre. 
In the years of low rain-fall it is nothing. Suppose that the 
total tillable area of the county were under the plow, what is 
the loss represented by this lack of irrigation, if the land 
were all in wheat? The tillable area being 866,451 acres, at 
30 bushels per acre the loss in bushels is 25,993,530, and at 
only 60 cents a bushel, the loss to the county in money, in 
one year, for lack of irrigation, would be $15,596,118. But 
wheat is far from being the most valuable crop that Merced 
would produce if its climate and soil were permitted to do 
their best by adequate use of the abundant waters which 
might be taken from her streams or impounded in the mount- 
ain canons for the benefit of her fields in the dry season. The 
Supreme Court of California, by its recent decision, says to 
Merced County: "You shall not have the settlers to plow 
your glebe and produce this wealth. You shall go on los- 
ing fifteen millions a year that might be earned by the own- 
ers of homes and farms and vineyards and orchards on your 
soil, because English law, which is our rule of decision, is 
not favorable to your prosperity." It will be seen that the 
people of Merccd will show scant mercy to such a law and 
to such a court, when they can in any way influence a re- 
versal of the one and a change in the other. 

The San Joaquin and Merced Rivers flow through the 
county. The latter has its rise far up in the snow above the 
Yosemite, and it winds through that valley on its way down 
to the plains below. The Merced is rich in water-powers as 
it comes down through the foot-hills on the east, and as the 
county develops, the water, which is finally to irrigate the 
prosperous farms, will first have turned the wheels of many a 
mill and factory, and out of this double duty will come a 
duplicate profit to happy Merced. The surface of the county 
is picturesque. There are many groves of live oaks, and the 
vines and fruits planted there thrive in all parts. The county 
seat is Merced City, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, 151 
miles south of San Francisco; and its fine hotels and dry and 
bracing climate have already made it a resort favored by 
many who seek health or pleasure in the vacations from 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 123 

business. The same mountain ranges that line each side of 
the whole valley make the boundaries of Merced. 

Capital has just been attracted by the county's latent re- 
sources. Mr. Chas. Crocker and IMr.C. H. Huffman have tapped 
the Merced River at Snelling, at a level so high that by cut- 
ting a costly tunnel the water is carried out above the plains 
for a distance of 35 miles in a canal 80 feet wide at the bot- 
tom and 100 feet wide at the top. It will irrigate perhaps 
half of the irrigable area of the county and some land in 
Fresno. It is an enterprise of wonderful magnitude, and its 
possibilities were discussed for years by the pioneers of Mer- 
ced, who despaired of its accomplishment. Now it is a fixed 
fact, and the owners of the great tracts of land to which it 
will bring water are preparing to subdivide, and to invite the 
colony system, which has done so much in Fresno, Tulare, 
Kern, and Southern California. Besides this grand canal 
and the streams mentioned, there are, in the county, the Chow- 
chilla, Deadman's, Mariposa, and Bear Creeks, and their trib- 
utaries, all considerable streams and of value in consider- 
ing the comprehensive irrigation of such a vast and valuable 
body of land. There are other irrigating systems on both 
sides of the San "Joaquin, and they are the means of showing, 
in flattering and favorable light, the capacity of the county. 

Let it not be imagined, however, that Merced is all in 
the future. The institutions of civilization and society have 
long been founded there. Forty district schools show an at- 
tendance of 89 per cent of the little folks of s:hool age in 
the county. The assessed valuation of property in Merced, 
real and personal, is $12,322,224, which for a population of 
about 6,000 is an evidence of wealth-producing capacity that 
tells its own story to the intending settler; and when it is re- 
membered that only recently all this land was ranged by 
sheep, and that still later wheat and wool were the sole factors 
in its commerce, the diversity of crops produced by irrigation 
may well surprise the old-timer. Soon the wines and raisins 
and fruits of Merced will take a distinct standing in the mar- 
ket, and the county will be covered with thrifty colonies. 



124 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

STANISLAUS COUNTY. 

Next below Merced lies Stanislaus, which runs from the 
Sierra Nevada foot-hills on the east to the summit of the 
Coast Range on the west, completely spanning the valley. 
Its neighbors on the east are Tuolumne and Calaveras; on 
the west it is bounded by Santa Clara. Its area is 924,800 
acre.s. The San Joaquin flows through it, and receives as 
confluents the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers. Bret Harte 
has immortalized the Stanislaus as the scene of an adventure 
of " Brown of Calaveras." 

Stanislaus County has been a great wheat producer. 
The crops rais:d on the east side of the San Joaquin have 
been marvelous in years of average rain-fa'.l, and they seldom 
fail entirely. On the west side of the river, however, owing 
to the influence of the Coast Range, which sends the rain-laden 
clouds sailing too high for precipitation, the crops are far be- 
tween; but so rich is the black soil that land owners there say 
that a crop one year in five pays them. This being true, fancy 
the production that will be fostered by irrigation. Already 
the San Joaquin Canal serves about 20,000 acres of this land, 
where the soil is a black loam, from 10 to 100 feet deep. This 
canal will finally be extended along the west side, carr\'ing 
water to about 90,000 acres of these lands which are shunned 
by the rains, but have all the other conditions of fabulous 
production. 

The farmers of this county have observed the good re- 
sults of diversifying rural industr}', though it is hard to 
change from the habit of wheat farming, and resort to irriga- 
tion and seems a change which dismays the conservative. Tra- 
dition will not hold back the new-comers who have seen the 
mighty things that have been done in Southern California 
and the three lower counties of the San Joaquin Valley. Six 
times since 1850 the whole county has been parched by stub- 
born droughts. The loss of stock was enormous, and the 
crops totally failed. These experiences admonish to diligence 
in introducing more extensi\'e irrigation from the waters 
which abound in the streams, and in this necessity the people 
of Stanislaus have a communit}' of interest with their neigh- 
bors above. 



THE A^EW EMPIRE. 125 

The county can, under easily controlled circumstances, 
produce as great a variety of fruits, grains, roots, and nuts as 
any part of the world, and its red lands in the eastern foot- 
hills, now producing two crops of wheat in three years, have 
the finest adaptability to the grape, and will produce sound 
and standard wines. 

The county seat is Modesto, a thriving town already, 
and destined to greater growth, as manifest destiny has its 
sway in the country that will pay tribute within its gates. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AND ITS MOUNTAIN RIM. 

WE began our examination of the San Joaquin Valley in 
the colonies of Fresno, and thence have gone up the 
valley to Kern County. We now reach the limit in the other 
direction. We are at the mouth of the pocket. San Joaquin 
County is at the beginning of the valley. Its plains stretch 
to the valley of the Sacramento. This county has an area 
of 928,000 acres, of which only 51,813 are waste land in the 
rivers or too broken for tillage. The San Joaquin River di- 
vides into three channels in this county, and so makes some 
of the largest islands in the State. The Mokelumne and 
Stanislaus Rivers are confluent with the San Joaquin in this 
county, and the three streams supply abundant water for irri- 
gation. This is one of the most important counties in the 
State, producing fruits, grains, and root crops, and devoted 
greatly to fine stock breeding and the dairy. Its products 
reach a final market by water or rail, and its farmers have 
prospered and list high in financial institutions. Stockton is 
the capital town, a great grain market, and the second city 
in the State in its manufactures. Being in the center of so 
great a grain country, Stockton is naturally the seat of a 
great trade in field and harvest machinery. Here is made 
the Shippee harvest machine, which cuts, threshes, sacks, and 
delivers the grain as it goes through the field. There are also 
foundries, tanneries, wagon and carriage factories, and the 



126 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

germs of a general manufacture fitted to the needs of a large 
population. Stockton is at the mouth of the valley; it is the 
Cairo, as Bakersfield is the Khartoum, of this New Egypt and 
Soudan. When the San Joaquin Valley shall feel throughout 
the impulse of enterprise, and be brought into productiveness 
by the skillful use of the waters that now waste in its streams, or 
evaporate in its lakes and ponds, or breed fever in its marshes, 
Stockton will be a great city. Its manufactures will multiply 
and the wines, brandies, raisins, figs, nuts, olives, oil, and grain of 
all the valley will contribute to its trade. Trains will load for 
Stockton far up the valley, and as the draft or bill of ex- 
change follows the bill of lading, Stockton banks and moneyed 
institutions will keep pace with the addition of every acre to 
the producing surface of the valley. 

The land-holders of San Joaquin County are fired by 
the example of Fresno, and, conquering their pride in vast 
possessions, are dividing their estates and inviting the settle- 
ment of colonies. They are also encouraging comprehensive 
irrigation, which will greatly increase the productive capacity 
of their lands. Considering the position of this county and 
of its chief town, its people have a present interest in putting 
irrigation amongst the permanent policies of the State, that 
should rouse them to powerful exertions in that behalf While 
San Francisco is the New York of the New Empire, towns 
like Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and Stockton are, 
or are to be, its Bostons, Philadelphias, and Chicagos. As 
the rivers flow from far Kern with ever-increasing volume 
until they carry the commerce of Stockton out to the bay, so 
the commercial results of productive enterprise, fostered by 
the beneficial appropriation of water, will accumulate as they 
come down the valley, each colony and each city taking and 
contributing a share, until, when Stockton is reached, the 
produce of the valley will turn the wheels and gild the spires 
of a great city. 

The four riparian judges of the Supreme Court propose 
to hinder, perhaps prohibit entirely, all this rural and com- 
mercial development. They fling the pall of English law, not 
only over all this valley, but their decision profoundly con- 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 127 

cerns the outlying counties; for on each side of the San Joa- 
quin Valley are foot-hill and mountain counties whose future 
is to be greatly affected. It concerns them whether they 
are to be upon the borders of a desert again, or are to look 
down on the fairest and most fruitful valley in the world, and 
to share its prosperity. Next to the ocean or the bay are Ven- 
tura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito^ 
Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa, each with some 
internal need of irrigation, each to be benefited in its own 
production by the use of water, and each with a great stake 
in the prosperous future that is now condemned to float out 
to sea, by these judges. On the east side of the valley are 
Inyo, Mono, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, and El 
Dorado, mountain counties, the reservoirs of the State, within 
whose limits the rivers take their rise, and whose canons and 
gulches offer the cheapest facilities for impounding storm 
waters to be found in the world. 

These counties are rich in resources that the useful appro- 
priation of their own waters will develop. The volcanic soils of 
their foot-hills will rival the steep hills of Bingen in their wine; 
and on these first steps of that mountain stairway by which we 
climb out of California, for 700 miles there will one day be 
an unbroken line of vineyards, orchards, and gardens, un- 
equaled in the world for the variety and character of their 
productions. Think of the San Joaquin Valley set in such a 
frame ! with mills and manufactures founded on the fine water- 
powers furnished in all these mountain counties, and with a 
reciprocal prosperity which makes the desert to blossom as a 
rose, and sets the mighty feet of the mountains in the midst 
of vines and orchards ! The people who foresee all this, who 
have seen other States grow from nothing to millions by mak- 
ing wise use of their natural advantages, will have but little 
patience with four riparian judges who decide and declare 
that California shall not make any use at all of her most ob- 
vious, plentiful, and valuable natural capacities. It is as if 
this court should order that every merchant in this State 
shall do business with one eye closed and the other darkened 
by a colored eyeglass; that every blacksmith, painter, car- 



128 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

penter, mason, tailor, harness maker, and handicraftsman 
shall work with his left hand only, while his right is strapped 
helpless to his side; and that every farmer shall hold the plow 
with one hand and follow it on one foot. Such a decision, as 
the reader will see, would be equivalent to depriving the peo- 
ple who toil and produce, of one-half their natural capacity. 
This riparian decision does just this for the State, and the 
public welfare and respect for law demand the success of the 
mighty movement now in progress for a legislative reorganiza- 
tion of the court that shall bring new and unpledged judges 
fresh from the people and reflective of the public will and the 
popular welfare. 



CHAPTER XXV 



AROUND SACRAMENTO A'ALLEY— THE MOUNTAIN COUNTIES 
OF THE NORTH, 

WE have considered the line of irrigable counties from Mt 
Diablo to the Mexican line, and the mountain counties 
which border them, and have an interwoven destiny. We 
will now look at some of the counties whose rural industries 
do not absolutely anci primarily depend upon irrigation, 
though all their commercial interests, manufacturing activities, 
and financial institutions are touched at all points by the de- 
velopment of the State, which is amongst the certainties to 
follow the beneficial appropriation of water. Marin County is 
the mountain gateway to a region rich in interest to the capital- 
ist and settler. Marin itself is all mountain, with the high val- 
leys found in such a region. Lofty Tamalpais rears his frown- 
ing front in the center of this county, and is at once the scenic 
attraction and the water reservoir for the slope that faces the 
bay and that which looks out upon the sea. It is a dairy 
county, and the Italian and Swiss people have found congenial 
opportunity for that industry which they learned in their 
native Alps and Appenines. The county seat, San Rafael, 
is the ideal suburban home, and here live hundreds of busi- 
ness men from San Francisco, attracted by the charming 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 129 

scenery and clement climate. Here the fig and grape reach 
perfection, and the orange ripens its fruit and scents the air 
with its bloom. 

Going through Marin by the Donahue railway, you enter 
Sonoma County. The Russians made a lodgment up here 
about the time they were capturing Alaska; but they left no 
trace behind, except in the name of Russian River, which 
brawls down this charming valley. Sonoma has about one 
million acres, with a frontage of sixty miles on the Pacific 
Ocean, and eighteen miles on San Francisco Bay. Here was 
the seat of Mexico's military power before the conquest, and 
in old Sonoma City still lives, in an honored old age, the Com- 
mandant-General Vallejo, who has been foremost amongst 
the progressive citizens of that State once ruled by his sword. 

The Russian River Valley is rich in every resource of 
agriculture and horticulture. It is a land of corn and wine, 
and its charming foot-hills are flaunting the silvery green of 
great orchards of olive trees. In this county are medicinal 
springs that have done much to make people acquainted with 
its beauties and its bounties. Its apple orchards are the finest 
in California, and its grapes and wines are long celebrated. The 
county seat, Santa Rosa, is gemmed with all thecharms possible 
to such a glorious climate; and Healdsburg in Sotoyomc Val- 
ley, the vale of flowers, is surrounded by rich farms. The rail- 
road terminates at Cloverdale, a lovely village worthy a rhap- 
sody of its own, and a branch goes to Guerneville, in the 
heart of the Sonoma redwood region. Sonoma is always 
visited with delight and left with regret. The railroad which 
pierces its great valley has been a prime factor in its develop- 
ment, and the builder of that highway of its commerce, the 
late Peter Donahue, will hold a first place always in the esteem 
of its citizens. 

Sonoma's neighbor on the north is Mendocino, made up 
entirely of two ranges of the coast system of mountains. 
Its wild grasses have made a favorite sheep and cattle range, 
and in its cultivated valleys the production of hops has been 
a profitable industry. Many a bold Briton has slaked his thirst 
with ale and stout that got its tonic bitter from the hops of 
9 



130 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

Mendocino. The Russian River rises in this county, and its 
valley shows some rich land, while the universal growth of wild 
oats and clover shows that when the lumbermen have stripped 
off the redwood, pine, fir, oak, and madrona, here will be the 
home, and breeding ground of fine stock and the seat of a 
fine dairy industry. The value of the forests may be seen 
in the fact that the redwood timber covers 745 square miles 
and redwood, take it all around, is the noblest and best tree 
that grows. 

Next north is Humboldt, still in the same tier an'd on 
the coast. It is believed that when Sir Francis Drake sailed 
this* way, he anchored in Humboldt Bay, out of which now 
goes and comes a commerce which would have been a richer 
prize than the silver- laden Spanish galleons of which that 
grim sea-king was so fond. 

Humboldt County has an area of 2,400,000 acres, of 
which 640,000 are covered with the majestic redwood forest. 
The whole surface is mountainous and rugged, watered by 
Trinity, Mad, Eel, and Mattole Rivers and their confluents 
The Coast Range rises here to lofty peaks and throws its 
spurs out toward the sea. To sec the standing timber is alone 
worth a pilgrimage across the continent; for it is one of the 
wonders of the coast, and one of the most reliable sources of 
wealth and profit that the New Empire can boast. Enter- 
prising lumbermen have here overcome the difficulties of log- 
ging offered by the climate, or, rather, they have converted 
those difficulties into facilities. In the pine forests of Mich- 
igan and Wisconsin the deep snows permit the sledding of 
logs to the stream which is to float them to the river, where 
they are to be compacted into rafts. The same snows melted 
supply the water that is to carry the log on its journey to the 
saw. In Humboldt there are no snows to sled on, so enter- 
prising lumbermen have built a logging railway, which runs 
into the timber belt. As the forest is on the mountain slopes, 
the great logs, when cut, are easily rolled to the specially made 
cars of this railway, and on them hauled to the mill. The 
Humboldt mills have a direct trade in lumber with the Pacific 
islands, and look forward to the penetration of the county 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 131 

by a railroad, that they may have direct shipment to the East. 
Redwood is rapidly taking the place of walnut and mahog- 
any and rosewood in fine finishing and furniture, and its rich 
tints make it unnecessary for it to sail under any colors but 
its own. It furnishes the most beautiful veneers from the 
whorls of its stumps and roots ; and as the roots do not decay, 
the loggers are leaving behind them in the ground a source of 
wealth that will soon be sought after by gangs of stump 
pullers. Although mountainous, the lands of Humboldt are 
surpassingly rich, and where the loggers have made clearings, 
it has an agricultural future. Around the county seat. Eu- 
reka, there is level land, and in the river valleys the land is so 
black and rich that it is called " niggerhead." Here the 
grasses, tame and wild, flourish, and it will be one day the 
" blue grass " region of California. 

We are now in the most unbrokenly mountainous coun- 
try on the continent. The counties of Del Norte, Trinity, 
and Siskiyou present noble mountainous boundaries, rich in 
mines, with gentle valleys that are prized by their fortunate 
occupants. Here is a hardy and honest people, as devoted 
to their mountain homes as the Swiss and the Tyrolean. 
Modoc County has only recently been wrested from the pest 
of Indian occupancy, and, like its neighbor Lassen, on the 
south, waits for railroads to fully develop resources that are 
important to the future of the State. Lake County, lying east 
of Sonoma and Mendocino, is but recently settled, and is still 
isolated by lack of railroads. 

It is the opinion of Judge S. C. Hastings that this county 
offers excellent inducements to people who cannot reconcile 
themselves to artificial irrigation, for here grass grows and 
water runs. It is rich in thermal and mineral springs, and 
one of them, the Bartlett, is believed to be a specific for 
Bright's disease of the kidneys. If tests prove this. Lake 
County will be sought by many pilgrims. This completes 
the list of counties which lie in and on the mountain rim of 
the Sacramento Valley, the other pocket in which the State 
feels for its money. The counties of that great valley will 
be considered in a group. 



132 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY. 

THE Sacramento Valley is the State's other pocket. 
Shasta County holds the same relation to this valley 
that Kern does to the San Joaquin, though it is more mount- 
ainous, and its champagne lands are very thoroughly wa- 
tered. The area of the county is 2,560,000 acres. The Si- 
erra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Range meet in Shasta, 
as they do in Kern, completing the pocket. This connecting 
range is lofty, rugged, and well-nigh impassable. Its loftiest 
peak is grand old Mt. Shasta, bald, snow-crowned, majestic. 
From Mt. Diablo, which stands at the junction of the two 
valleys, Mt. Shasta is visible, 265 miles away. Down from 
its summit, out of the clouds, flows Cloud River, persistently, 
because mistakenly, called " McCloud " by the California 
press, and perhaps by the map-makers. Let us do what we 
can to rescue the name from common-place and restore it 
to its meaning, expressive of its high descent. Within the 
county are Lassen Peaks, one of which rises to a height of 
10,577 f^sGt. The general elevation of the connection between 
the two ranges is 5,000 feet, and across this formidable bar- 
rier the California and Oregon railway is slowly making its 
way, in the face of the greatest topographical obstructions 
that have opposed themselves to railway construction in any 
part of the continent. When this road has fought its way 
through tunnels, and by climbing cliffs and clinging to the 
sides of caiions, it will connect San Francisco with Oregon, and 
the travel will pass through Shasta and the other Sacramento 
Valley counties on its way north, toward Alaska, as now, by 
the Southern Pacific, it goes the length of the San Joaquin, 
south, toward New Orleans. This Northern route finally 
connects with a system of railway which is being extended 
to Hudson's Bay; and there is something suggestive of a 
great commercial future in the thought that San Francisco 
will then have railway communication with the Gulf of Mex- 
ico on one hand, and Hudson's Bay on the other. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 133 

When travel comes from the North over this line, it will, 
in Shasta, look out upon the first valley land of Califor- 
nia, and, fresh from the snowy mountains, it will see here, 
growing, the orange and lemon tree, untouched by frost, 
though the latitude is 41° north. Shasta's tillable lands are 
rich, her climate inviting, the scenery inspiring, and settlers 
there send out the news of contentment. Next south of 
Shasta lies Tehama, with an area of 1,958,400 acres, and, 
spanning the valley from its eastern border, neighbors Plumas 
and Butte, which lie in the Sierra Nevadas, to the Coast 
Range on the west. Tehama abounds in streams, and about 
one-third her soil is that volcanic sort which offers permanent 
nourishment for the vine. Tehama has obvious natural ad- 
vantages and beauties, and was the seat of American settle- 
ment as early as 1844. Indeed, it attracted the first white 
settlement north of Sutter's Fort. There is much suggestive- 
ness in the first location made by pioneers when the whole coun- 
try is open to them, and they can choose at will. Tehama's 
modern history is vindicating the judgment of her first settlers. 
The soil is divided between the volcanic and richly alluvial, 
and there is not much waste in the wide span between the 
foot-hills of the two ranges. 

Irrigation would greatly swell the already fine produc- 
tions of this county. The facilities for it are so ample that a 
hydraulic survey demonstrates that one canal taken from the 
Sacramento River, above Red Bluff, will irrigate 780,000 acres. 
This, added to the usually good rainfall, would subject every 
arable acre in the county to high farming and the most per- 
fect productiveness. The crops embrace the full California 
variety, and there is none greater anywhere in the world. 

We have spoken of the Nadeau vineyard as the larg- 
est in the world. At Vina, in Tehama County, Governor 
Stanford has a vineyard which, when extended and com- 
pleted according to his plans, will take precedence. The old 
part of this vineyard has produced the phenomenal yield of 
eleven tons per acre, which, we believe, has never been 
equaled by vines anywhere else in the world. It is the pur- 
pose of Vina vineyard to demonstrate, on a large scale, the 



134 THE NEW EMPIRE, 

ultimate capacity of California vines and vineyard soils, and 
so far the result is greatly complimentary to the resources of 
Tehama County. The climate here is clement, as it is 
throughout the valley, and the scenery varied and agreeable. 
Next, down the valley, is Colusa, acreage 1,600,000, with 
the Sacramento River for its east line and its western border 
on the top of the Coast Range. Colusa has the honor of 
having been the scene of the first demonstration of the pos- 
sibilities of wheat raising; for once it was thought that Cali- 
fornia would never raise its own bread, and we had to depend 
on Chili flour. The late Doctor Glenn opened in Colusa the 
largest wheat farm in the world, 60,000 acres, in one body, 
and here it was proved that California could bread herself 
and load fleets with her surplus wheat. So the fame of 
Colusa went out on- the marvelous stories of wheat produc- 
tion, and the county became known throughout the bread- 
eating world. This county is adapted to, and needs, irriga- 
tion joined with drainage. Much of its lands have, at times, 
too much water, and others have too little. A system of irri- 
gation which necessarily implies the impounding of storm 
waters will contribute greatly to the needs of each variety 
of lands. When Colusa County talks of irrigation in the 
dry season, timid people in Sacramento City feel symptoms 
of panic at the idea of taking water out of the river. The 
one real peril which threatens that city is from floods. Her 
commerce can stand a few weeks of low water; but her foun- 
dations cannot stand even a small access to the annual flood 
which puts her in the center of a great sheet of rather unin- 
teresting water. If Colusa were permitted to impound all the 
water needed to enrich her arid plains, and make her a prin- 
cipality in productions and wealth, the people of the valley 
below would not be ague-smitten by the yearly floods, 
and Sacramento would be delivered from an overflow which 
has had a sinister effect upon her prosperity and advancement. 
The county seat is the town of Colusa, and here lives 
Mr. Will S. Green, editor of the S7in, and the most tireless, 
intelligent, enterprising agitator of irrigation in the State. 
Pressed by the local interests of his county in the question, he 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 135 

has never ceased to admonish, instruct, implore and beseech 
the people to be wise in time on this great question. 

Sutter and Yuba Counties lie on the east side of the Sac- 
ramento River, opposite and below Colusa, and have the gen- 
eral characteristics of their neighbors, while Nevada, Sierra 
and Placer overlook the valley from the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains, and have interests kindred to those of its people. 
Placer is the most noted mountain and foot-hill fruit county 
in the State, and serves as an example of what can be done 
in that culture all along the seven hundred miles of foot-hills 
that lie under the Sierra Nevadas. 

Solano, Yolo, and Sacramento lie mostly in the far- gap- 
ing mouth of the Sacramento Valley. Solano, once a great 
wheat county, has come rapidly to the front with her early, 
medium, and late fruits. Vaca Valley, out of which wheat 
fields chased the cattle, the harvester replacing the vaquero, 
has witnessed another transformation, and now is a solid or- 
chard from Vacaville to Putah Creek. Here the cherry, 
apricot, peach, plum, and grape often ripen earliest, and her 
lands, that a {q\v years ago were keeping their wheat-raising 
owners miserable, now bring $i,ooo an acre, and the crops 
taken from them bring a profit that justifies the price. In 
this region is the Orleans vine3^ard, in which grow vines from 
Orleans, France, that were originally from Metternich's Johan- 
nisberger vineyard, at Nassau. Here, too, are vines of the 
" thumb grape," from Italy, and other choice shipping and 
wine varieties. If a visitor wishes to see fruit farming in its 
perfection, let him visit Solano County and Vaca Valley. In 
this county the date palm ripens its fruit unsheltered, and 
trees grown from the seeds planted thirty years ago may be 
seen. Yolo County is undergoing the common transforma- 
tion of her industries, less wheat and more fruit. At Da- 
visville, on the line of the Central Pacific, in this county, is. 
one of the largest raisin vineyards in the State, where may 
be seen a very fine and successful example of sub-irrigation, 
the water being discharged from pipes below the surface, 
thus escaping the loss of evaporation, and always leaving the 
surface in a condition to work. 



136 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

Sacramento is the capital county. Its area of 640,00c 
acres is almost entirely within the great valley, to which it 
holds the same relative position that Stockton does to the San 
Joaquin. It is watered by the Sacramento, American, Co- 
sumnes, and Mokelumne Rivers, and has a soil and surface agree- 
ably diversified and very rich. Here Sutter's Fort stood, toward 
which all immigrants traveled in 1849. Sacramento was 
first a mass of wagons around the fort, then a city of tents, 
later of shanties, and now a growing city, with large com- 
merce and manufactures, and destined to have a great com- 
mercial future, as the valley above it is developed. The hor- 
ticulture of this county is well developed, and its agriculture 
is in the front rank. The city is full of semi-tropical bland- 
ishments. On hundreds of private lawns fine orange trees 
ripen their fruit; the palm, of many varieties, gives an oriental 
tone to the scene, and flowers in prodigal profusion give the 
city a Persian air. In this county, on Senator Routier's 
place, is the most celebrated almond orchard in the State, and 
so rich, and so varied, and so valuable are the products of 
the different soils, that if this capital city were limited to the 
trade, profits, and productions of this one county, it would 
find in them material for the growth of a metropolis; for Sac- 
ramento County alone is capable of producing more wealth 
from the soil than the whole State of Massachusetts, and 
yet see the many cities 'which thrive in Massachusetts ! 

THE BAY COUNTIES. 

Considering the counties that border San Francisco Bay, 
Napa is the most noted for vineyards. Napa Valley is the 
modern Eschol, and in the vintage season there, the visitor 
can hardly believe that he is in America. The scenes and the 
activities of the season belong to Southern Europe. Here, 
Krug, Schramm, and many other vintners have developed a 
wine interest which is of enormous proportions. Napa 
County is rich in mineral springs and resorts for recreation, 
and will always be a charming place for the tourist and so- 
journer, and a place of perfect contentment for the happy 
people who dwell there. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 137 

Alameda, the second county in the State, has for 
its capital Oakland, the second city of the State, and in 
many important respects the most strikingly beautiful 
city on the continent. With one hundred miles of smooth 
streets, with the bay on one side, and a semi-lune 
of charming mountains on the other, a system of sur- 
passingly rich valleys behind, and an increasing commerce 
and manufacturing industry, Oakland offers advantages that 
are as patent as her charms are irresistible. The agriculture 
of Alameda is of the first order. The bay climate makes irri- 
gation but moderately necessary, and here are gardens and 
orchards as fine as the world can boast. In Livermore Val- 
ley are thousands of acres of vineyard just coming into 
bearing, and soon Alameda wines will take their place among 
the standard varieties of the State. 

Below Alameda is Santa Clara County, at the southern 
arm of the bay, with San Jose, its capital, at the mouth of 
Santa Clara Valley. This region is unsurpassed in fertility. 
We would not ask a stranger to believe the truth concern- 
ing it, until he sees with his own eyes. It is the opinion of 
many connoisseurs that the wines of Santa Clara County 
have reached perfection. Here are made the Naglee brandies 
which, in a wide competition at Paris, carried away the first 
premium in a sweepstakes against the world. To the west 
of the southern arm of the bay lies San Mateo County, 
which has all the charms, capacities, and resources of the 
other bay counties. Here, at Menlo Park, are located the 
homes of millionaires, Senator Stanford, Mr. J. C. P'lood, 
and many others, and here will be that Oxford of the 
Pacific, the Leland Stanford, Jr., University. 

San Francisco City and County are coterminous, and 
under homogeneous government. A city of 400,000 people, 
with 200 millionaires, • with all the vices . and the virt- 
ues of a cosmopolitan population drawn from every coun- 
try under the sun, it is the western Paris, and more nearly 
resembles ancient Rome, in the possible reach of its influence, 
derivation of its trade, and diversity of people attracted to it, 
than does any other modern city. Here meet the Esquimaux 



138 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

from beyond the Arctic Circle, the Klickitat, from Sitka, the 
Fox Indian, from the Aleutian Archipelago, the Fiji, Samoan, 
and Maori, the Hawaiian, Malay, Japanese, Chinese, Corean, 
Hindoo, Parsee, and Arab, the Mexican, Colombian, Greek 
and Cossack, and people of every nation in Europe. If 
assimilation of diverse elements makes a strong people, here 
should be born the future Samson of the nations. 

San Francisco is the third commercial city in the Union, 
and when the means, which we have so often preached in these 
pages, are found to attract people and make their stay profit- 
able, she will, on this side of the continent, precisely balance 
New York on the other. 



CH APT E R XXVII. 

CALIFORNIA — A RESUMlfi. 

WE have given this cursory glance at California in detail 
because it is the oldest State in the New Empire, and 
in many respects retains the primacy which it so easily gained. 
Its metropolis is the commercial and financial center of the 
New Empire, as indeed it is also of the Pacific Islands and 
coasts. Its products are peculiar to itself It is the oriental 
part of America. The seeker will in vain push his quest in 
Central and South America for a climate and other physical 
features like those of California. The only climate in the 
world that approximates it in salubrity, is that of Bermuda, 
but in its climatology California enjoys the singular distinc- 
tion of possessing a variety of climates, with subtle dis- 
tinctions and shades of difference that are perceptible to 
the invalid in search of health which has been lost in the 
elemental warfare of the East, and these distinctions and 
shades of difference are as fixed and reliable as the seasons. 
From this is derived the advantage of being able to select 
a location that is curative of a disease, or preventive of an 
abnormal tendency, in the certainty that its climate is not to 
change, and force the patient into another exile. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 139 

We have specially -made plain the value to the com- 
merce of the State that lies in the Sacramento and San Joa- 
quin Valleys. Those valleys through which the San Joaquin 
River flows north, and the Sacramento south, together, are 
400 miles long, by an average of 50 miles wide, and their till- 
able area of nearly 13,000,000 acres is about one-ninth the 
total area of the State. If the 20,000 square miles which 
they cover were as thickly inhabited as New York, the State 
would have three times its present population. California is 
larger than Japan, and, permitted to use all needed means to 
bring its soil into productiveness, it is capable of an annual 
harvest of fruits, grains, nuts, roots, and berries, as great as 
the harvest of Japan. Yet California has less than a million 
of people, and Japan has thirty-five millions, amongst whom 
poverty is the rare exception. We do not pretend that under 
our civilization it is possible to crowd a population as densely 
as it may be done in Asia; but we do say that the natural 
resources of California are adequate to the task of furnishing 
a commerce more varied and as great, and to the supplying 
of food and raiment to a population as large as Japan. 

Let us repeat that our references to the counties of 
California have been kept far within the line of facts, and 
that in the case of each one referred to there is enough more 
to be said to make a volume for each individual county. 
This book is to give to intending immigrants, and the press, 
a fair idea of the present state of the New Empire, and to 
stimulate further inquiry on the part of those who may wish 
to see for themselves the most desirable part of America 
and the choicest spot on earth. 

We have frankly declared the law and the facts upon the 
irrigation issue. Its importance is under-drawn rather than 
otherwise, and the frankly declared intentions of the people 
respecting changes in the law, and, if need be, changes in the 
courts, have been given as part of current history, and as an 
admonition to judgesandfor the information of those who have 
been deterred from considering a location in California by 
a judicial blow at the condition of happy and prosperous 
life in this State. Surely the great rural and business interests 



140 THE NEW EMPIRE 

of the State are best served by a combination of all agencies, 
literary and political, to do God's work in forcing even judges 
to admit that human law is merely a handmaiden to the cus- 
tomary law of Nature, and that the Creator never yet per- 
mitted man to mar the pattern, nor destroy the beauty of 
His footstool. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE. 

HON. A. A. SARGENT, who represented California in the 
Federal Senate during those years in which the material 
development of the State required the most congressional 
help, and got it through his influence, and who later repre- 
sented his country at Berlin, has, since our chapters on irri- 
gation were written, published in the Overland MontJily the 
following article on this subject. Inasmuch as our say was 
said without consultation with any legal authorities, we are 
pleased to find all that we have said indorsed by an author- 
ity so great and so trustworthy. By the kind permission of 
the editor of the Overland, we transfer Mr. Sargent's article 
to these pages, as a conclusive statement of the case: — 

" The physical features of California are such that if the 
law governing the State does not sanction the appropriation 
of water by diversion to beneficial uses, as opposed to what 
are called riparian rights, it is a matter of serious regret. It 
is more. It is a pressing question whether there be not apt 
and judicious means by which the law may be brought into 
harmony with public interests. 

" The waters of this State are irregularly and scantily 
supplied by precipitation. Aside from the bays and principal 
rivers, not available for irrigation, these waters, in their nat- 
ural state, run through steep, crooked, and rocky canons to 
the plains, where they become broad, shifting, shallow 
streams, often dry, and spread out into swamps, or shallow 
lakes, the surfaces of which are ordinarily so far below the 
surrounding country as to be unavailable for reservoirs. The 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 141 

water in these lakes and swamps becomes fetid, fever-breed- 
ing, generating swarms of noxious insects, and their neigh- 
borhood uninhabitable. These depositories of slimy water 
can only be drained by intercepting the water which flows 
toward them in the shallow, scanty streams, which the Cali- 
fornia vocabulary, for want of a better term, names rivers. 
These lakes and swamps, to be found in our great plains, are 
the mere overflow of the streams in the high water of spring, 
when the snows on the mountains melt with the increasing 
heat of the sun. At other seasons, they shrink in their beds 
under excessive evaporation and from absorption, uncovering 
their dish-like approaches for miles, on which rank tules grow, 
and rot. The air is poisoned by the exhalations, during the 
hot season, for miles around; the water turns a light coffee 
color, and the neighborhood becomes frightfully unwholesome 
for man and beast. 

" If the supply of v/ater from precipitation were greater, 
and regular, lasting through the year, as in England, the inlets 
to these lakes would be strong, navigable rivers; the lakes 
would be deep, clear, and unvarying in size; the swamp would 
cut out into deep outlets, carrying sparkling waters to the 
ocean, and freighted with inland commerce. The present 
nuisances would disappear; for the region about the lakes and 
swamps would be changed from its natural pestilential condi- 
tion to salubriousness. 

" But we cannot have this greater and regular supply of 
water from rain and snow. Our climatic conditions forbid it, 
and will do so for all time. We depend for the little precipi- 
tation we get upon the trade winds, which, when conditions, 
uncertain as the winds, are favorable, send to us in grudging 
quantities the moisture which tends to make the State habit- 
able. Whatever the direction of the wind in England, it 
traverses high seas ordinarily in commotion from storms. 
The isle is drenched at all seasons, except occasionally in 
some of the spring months, and it is liable during those 
months to rain enough to make a feature in a California ' wet 
season.' 

" In consequence of this feature of our climate (so 



142 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

stroagly in contrast with that of England, whence comes the 
doctrine of riparian rights), when our people began to settle 
the valleys of this State, they found these swamps and 
swampy lakes, which Nature had already fashioned. In the 
progress of settlement, the question has arisen. Is it necessary 
or right to keep forever these polluting areas, or can engineer- 
ing science and public necessity obviate them ? The soil 
under the thin layer of water in the lakes is rich; may it be 
made cultivable ? Homes may be made in the region now 
too unhealthy for any population; shall the State be allowed 
to improve ? Enterprise stands ready to create taxable prop- 
erty there; is there a law which forbids it? 

"The method of I'edemption is plain, if there is not some- 
thing in the law to prevent its use. We repeat, that the 
problem is to get the water out of depressions in the valleys 
too low for ordinary drainage. Thus, Tulare Lake is the 
overflow from King's River. It has no outlet, unless the 
overflow from King's River becomes so great that the sur- 
face of the lake rises high enough to send the water back 
through the same river to an outlet in the San Joaquin. 
Kern and Buena Vista Lakes are the overflow from Kern 
River, a sumpage ground in spring. The water, when there 
is enough of it, flows into Buena Vista Slough, and thence 
south into the lakes. If the lakes get full endugh, the water 
flows back through Buena Vista Slough to Buena Vista 
Swamp, where it is spread out and lost. Under such con- 
ditions, it is obvious that there can be no drainage of Tulare 
Lake through King's River, or of Kern or Buena Vista Lakes 
through the Buena Vista Slough or Swamp. The great body 
of the water is condemned to fester and dry up in the hot 
sun of that region, with the effects described. But the wa- 
ters of King's River, on their way to Tulare Lake, and those 
of Kern River, on their way to Kern and Buena Vista- Lakes, 
may be intercepted and the water be used for irrigation on the 
parched plains; and then the lakes and swamps will perma- 
nently dry up, their beds be given to fertility and man, their 
noxious insects disappear, their fevers vanish, and prosperity 
take the place of desolation. 



THE NEW EMPJRE. 143 

" This is one side of the problem ; but there is another and 
more important one. The great valley of California lies be- 
tween latitude 34° 50' near Fort Tejon, and 40° 40' near 
Shasta, giving an extreme length of 450 miles, and an aver- 
age width of 40 miles, including the foot-hills. It lies be- 
tween the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevadas, and within 
the cup of the mountains lies an area of 52,200 square miles, 
equal to half of all the Middle States. In this great valley 
are millions of acres of land, possessing all the elements of 
fertility except moisture, a climate agreeable in winter, hot and 
desiccating in summer, and yet not enervating nor unfavor- 
able to industry. Under the stimulus of water, from 50 to 
So bushels of wheat per acre have been produced, and 45 
bushels of barley as a volunteer crop. Five crops of alfalfa 
have been grown in one year, yielding an average of 15 tons 
per acre. From the farthest bound of the Colorado desert 
to the headwaters of the Sacramento, is a region to be bene- 
fited by irrigation; and one-half of it, approximating in fer- 
tility to that above described, is absolutely sterile without it. 
This part lies, year after year, as it has done since the mount- 
ains took their present form, dreary, dead, and forbidding, 
except in comparatively limited areas, where a system of irri- 
gation has been adopted, changing sightless deserts into 
scenes of perennial loveliness. The traveler through Tulare, 
Fresno, Kern, Stanislaus, Merced, Los Angeles, and other 
southern counties, may see, lying side by side, desert tracts 
parched and burnt like the Sahara, and oases of wondrous 
beauty, whereon tropical fruits flourish in the vicinity of grain 
crops; where rich meadows feed innumerable herds of cattle, 
horses, and sheep. A few years ago the oasis was desert. 
What magician has changed this so much for the better? 
Redemption was effected by bringing the fugitive and scanty 
water of these streams to these lands, and thus quickening 
them into life. As the area of irrigated land has extended, 
all branches of business have become enlarged. 

"A great wool clip, raisins, wine, and brandy, oranges 
and other tropical fruits, countless herds of cattle fattened for 
home and foreign markets, growing villages and cities, pleas- 



144 THE NE W EMPIRE. 

ant and numerous homes, all attest the benefits accruing from 
irrigation. A great trade has sprung up, to the advantage of 
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the whole State. This is 
the result from the irrigation of a few hundred thousand acres 
of land, to water which ditches and canals thousands of miles 
in length have been constructed and maintained at a cost of 
some $100,000,000. It is calculated by engineers that the 
water of our rivers, available for the purpose, will be sufficient 
to extend irrigation to many millions of acres which now are 
absolutely useless, but which will then be as fertile as the Nile 
Valley after a swelling of the sacred river. 

"These facts show the relation of irrigation, or the ap- 
propriation of water to useful purposes, to the problem of 
draining the pestilential lakes and marshes of the State. By 
constructing reservoirs in the mountains to catch the surplus 
water, and by intercepting the water on its way to the stag- 
nant pools which naturally receive it, and where it is wasted 
by evaporation, and by spreading it out over desert lands, the 
swampy lakes and morasses are dried up, and become the 
scenes of agricultural prosperity, while thriving farms are 
created on the deserts to embellish and enrich the State. 
Works of irrigation and for reclaiming marsh lands go to- 
gether in all old countries where either are needful. 

" If it be true that the Legislature has been so improvi- 
dent in its laws that the people of the State are powerless to 
dry up their swamps and fertilize their deserts, then the popu- 
lation of the State is too large, and its prosperity is built on so 
insecure a basis that a collapse is impending. If this be true, 
the colonies of Fresno, Anaheim, Riverside, etc., have chosen 
the wrong State for their settlements. The farmers who have 
created cultivable land in Tulare Lake must soon see their 
possessions engulfed in the returning waters. The prosperous 
farms in the deserts must return to their original sand heaps; 
the verdant crops that beautify a broad region must die, and 
the herds that feed there must die with them, or be driven 
away. Towns must dwindle to villages, and villages and 
homesteads disappear. All industries built upon irrigation 
must perish when irrigation ceases, and future improvements 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 145 

conditioned upon irrigation be denied. These propositions 
are so simple that they are axiomatic. They are founded in 
the experience of all arid countries. All our libraries contain 
shelves full of books illustrating them. 

" It may well be supposed that this people will not sub- 
mit to such consequences without an earnest attempt to avert 
them. It can hardly be anticipated that they will accept the 
destruction of such solid interests upon the fiat of four Su- 
preme Judges, when three other members of the same respect- 
able tribunal dissent, and say the majority is mistaken in its 
law. By our form of government, there is an appeal to the 
people from all executive or judicial action. By making the 
judiciary elective, the Constitution devolves the duty upon 
the people of determining as to the fitness of judges, and 
makes these directly responsible to the people. Many old- 
school thinkers have objected to this feature of modern con- 
stitutions; but it has survived all attacks, and is now firmly 
rooted in public policy. By that policy the people have op- 
portunity to confirm or reverse the decisions of their judges, 
and may reasonably be expected to exercise this power in a 
case where public interests are put at hazard, and the decision 
of the court meets with general popular non-concurrence. 

" The effects of the decision in question are not localized 
to the great valleys of the State. The mountains are seamed 
with water ditches, constructed at immense cost for mining 
purposes, in defiance of riparian rights. Some of these canals 
are already utilized for irrigation, and more will be in the 
future, if it is permissible. For this purpose they need to be 
greatly extended, and new ditches to be taken out below the 
present points of diversion. Is the miner, driven from his 
occupation by the action of courts, to be prevented by the 
courts from maintaining his means of diversion, or creating 
new ones, to fertilize the vineyards and orchards he is plant- 
ing in the foot-hills? The few dwellers along the rocky 
canons are the riparian proprietors, and they are the ones 
who can compel the appropriators to turn the water back 
into the streams, that it may run unused by their solitary 
cabins. 

« 10 



146 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

" The question, therefore, whether what has been hereto- 
fore held as the common law of California — viz: the right of 
the first appropriator of water for beneficial use, to enjoy it to 
the extent of his appropriation — or whether recognition as 
conclusive of the inapplicable common law of England (which 
o-ives to the proprietor on the banks of a water course the 
right to have all wat^r naturally flowing by or through his 
land, continue so to flow, unused, undisturbed and undimin- 
ished) shall prevail, becomes a vital one to all the people of 
this State to consider, both in economic and legal aspects. 

"By the act of April 13, 1850, the California Legislature 
enacted that ' The common law of England, so far as it is not 
repugnant to, or inconsistent with, the Constitution or laws of 
the State of California, shall be the rule of decision in the 
courts of this State.' Upon this enactment, the structure of 
'riparian rights' rests, and the right of appropriation is de- 
nied, however destructive the consequences. The State then 
signed the bond, giving the pound of flesh; it enacted away 
all control, ownership, and beneficial use of its waters, and 
improvidently wrote ruin upon most of its territory. So runs 
the argument. It is necessary to its conclusiveness to insist 
that the common law is inflexible in its provisions, unbending 
to circumstances, uninfluenced by the necessities of the peo- 
ple, which its provisions govern. The laws of legislatures 
may be changed, constitutions be modified by amendment 
or explained away by courts; but the common law of En- 
gland is fastened on the State, and may throttle it, and there 
is no relief, unless judges in England vary its tendencies. 
New conditions may arise here; but they must yield to it. 
New discoveries may be made in art, science, and political 
economy, of all of which the originators of the common law 
had no conception; yet they must wait upon its teachings 
and abide by its slightest indications. No people ever as- 
sumed meekly a more intolerable yoke, or submitted to a 
more absurd bondage, if this be true. But it is not true. 
One of the leading principles of the English common law is, 
that it is flexible, and may be modified to suit the varying 
wants of the community. Were this otherwise, it would 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 147 

never have been taken by English colonists to their new 
homes. The declaration of rights made by the first Conti- 
nental Congress in 1774, declared that 'the respective col- 
onies are entitled to the common law of England, and to the 
benefit of such English statutes as existed at the time of their 
colonization, and which they have by experience found to be 
applicable to their social, local, and other circumstances.' 
Unless so applicable, the common law was repudiated by the 
Continental Congress, as England would have repudiated it 
if it had ceased to be applicable to her necessities. 

" The United States Supreme Court has declared that 
the common law of America is not to be taken in all respects 
to be that of England, but that the settlers adopted only that 
portion which was applicable to their situation. The consti- 
tutions of many States contain language similar to the stat- 
ute of 1850, and contain no words of exemption of such por- 
tions of the common law as are inapplicable to the condition 
or necessities of the particular community; notably in New 
York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts; and yet the 
courts in those States have held that the common law'is not 
a rule of decision where opposed to the wants of the people. 
" As an illustration of the modification of the English 
common law in the United States may be instanced the case 
of ancient lights. Blackstone says: 'If one obstructs an- 
other's ancient windows, the law will animadvert hereon as 
an injury, and protect the injured party in his possession.' 
This doctrine is as well seated in the English common law as 
is that of riparian rights. Any one passing Cheapside and 
other busy traffic streets in East London, will see where, in 
the march of modern improvements, old buildings have been 
pulled down to erect finer structures. On the squatty neigh- 
boring buildings, at little windows looking out on old courts 
or . alleys, are put numerous signs bearing the inscription, 
'Ancient Lights,' as a warning to the neighbor not to build 
his new building so high or in such shape as to obstruct the 
light through these old peep-holes. The same author defines 
the common law to be general customs which are the uni- 
versal rule of the whole kingdom, and are ascertained and 



148 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

their validity determined by the judges of the several courts 
of justice. This common law, he says, protects these ancient 
lights. The lead in repudiating the common law doctrine of 
ancient lights in the United States, was taken by the courts 
of New York, the Constitution of which State makes the com- 
mon law the rule of decision to the extent to which it is so 
made by our statute. Upon a case calling for a decision as 
to the right to obstruct an ancient light, the learned judge 
repudiated the English common law doctrine, upon the 
ground that ' it cannot be applied in the growing cities and 
villages of this country, without working the most mischiev- 
ous consequences. It has never, we think, been deemed a 
part of our law.' The same ruling has been made by every 
court in the United States, save one, which has passed on the 
question. Yet this doctrine is incrusted in the common law, 
as every lawyer knows. Even so the doctrine of riparian 
rights cannot be applied to our arid State without the most 
mischievous consequences. Why, then, apply it ? 

" The same great jurist said: ' I think no doctrine better 
settled than that such portions of the law of England as are 
not adapted to our own condition, form no part of the law of 
this State. The exception includes not only such laws as are 
inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions, but such as 
were framed with special reference to the physical condition 
of a country differing widely from our own. It is contrary 
to the spirit of the common law, to apply a rule founded on 
a particular reason, to a case where that reason utterly fails.' 

" The doctrine of riparian rights grew up in a small 
country, continually drenched with water, where the necessity 
for irrigation was unknown, and the only use of water was 
for navigation by shallow boats, or to propel water mills. In 
England the annual rainfall reaches eighty inches; in some 
parts of California it does not exceed six inches. The prob- 
lem in England has always been to get rid of water, not to 
divert it, for there was no beneficial use for the diverted wa- 
ters. But the doctrine of riparianism grew up anciently, 
when the owners of grain mills along the streams desired 
the water to flow steadily to the rude mill wheels, and the 



THE NE W EMPIRE. 149 

movers of country products, before railroad transportation, 
desired to prevent obstructions being put in their way in the 
streams. The judges moulded their decisions upon these 
narrow necessities, and on kindred ones in the course of time. 
Their doctrines fitted the times and the necessities of the 
communities to which they applied. They are out of place 
in an arid region, where navigation of streams available for 
irrigation is impossible, and the fluctuating supply of water 
precludes its use for power. As the common law was devised 
to minister to the wants of the community governed by it, 
and enable them to make the most of their surroundings, it 
is obvious that the judges would have sanctioned appropri- 
ation'for irrigation, had irrigation been a great necessity for 
England. To doubt this is to misunderstand the mode of 
growth of the common law. The rule of riparianism was 
founded upon particular reasons. If the reasons had been 
different, the rule would have been different also. It is there- 
fore a violence to good judgment to import into our law a 
rule founded on reasons which have no existence with us; in- 
deed, where the reasons are exactly opposite. To do so is to 
violate the common law, not to enforce it. The writer enter- 
tains the highest respect for Hon. Allen Thurman as a states- 
man and jurist, and such is generally conceded to him. Judge 
Thurman, when upon the Supreme bench of Ohio, laid down 
this principle in plain language. He said: 'The English 
common law, so far as it is reasonable in itself, suitable to 
the condition and business of our people, and consistent, 
with the letter and spirit of our Federal and State constitu- 
tions and statutes, has been and is followed by our courts, 
and may be said to constitute a part of the common law of 
Ohio. But whenever it has been found wanting in any of 
these requisites, our courts have not hesitated to modify it to 
suit our circumstances; or, if necessary, to wholly depart 
from it.' Would space permit, it might be shown by a wide 
range of quotations from eminent judges and law writers, 
that the common law of England is not enforced in Ameri- 
can courts where such application is not consonant with our 
condition and necessities. Our Supreme Court had abundant 



150 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

precedents and the highest authority to decide, if it so willed 
to decide, that the doctrine of riparian rights, originating 
under circumstances and for reasons so different from those 
existing here, is not the law of this State, and never has been- 

" An illustration is furnished by the courts of setting 
aside the English common law, because the physical condi- 
tions of this country are different from those of England, as 
regards admiralty jurisdiction. The early decisions of the 
United States Supreme Court assumed that the expression 
' cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ' was used in the 
Constitution in the same sense as in England at the time the 
Constitution was framed; and therefore, following the restric- 
tion which the common law had imposed on admiralty in En- 
gland, held that the jurisdiction was limited to matters on 
the high seas or tide waters, and not within the body of a 
country. The earlier cases adopted the language of the 
law of England, where the navigable waters are tidal; but 
the same court afterwards held, and still holds, the rule in- 
applicable in this country, which has great inland seas and 
long public rivers, navigable to long distances beyond the set 
of the tide. It recognized ' the necessities of commerce,' as 
requiring the application of the jurisdiction to all public navi- 
gable waters on which commerce is carried between different 
States or nations. Yet the same great tribunal has always 
held that the English common law, where our conditions per- 
mit its useful application, is the heritage of the people of this 
country; that is, that it is a minister to our prosperity, and 
not a drag upon it. The Act of 1850 did not, therefore, upon 
the principles of construction applied by other jurists, import 
the doctrine of riparian rights into this State. Had it been 
intended so to do, surely no legislature ever so little under- 
stood, or was so careless of, the heritage of its constituents 
and that of their children's children. 

"That legislature met six months before the State itself 
had a legal existence. It was made up partly of natives who 
knew nothing of irrigation, who only valued land for pastur- 
age, and watered their herds at any convenient spring. If 
they understood Mexican laws with regard to water, which is 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 151 

doubtful, they knew that this was subject to common use, and 
could be kept in the natural channel, or diverted by individu- 
als or corporations, as the Government permitted. Riparian- 
ism was unknown to them. The remainder of those legisla- 
tors were gold-seekers or office-hunters, who necessarily had 
ittle knowledge of the physical geography of the State, and 
hence were poorly qualified to pass an intelligent judgment 
on this question, even if they gave it a thought, which there 
is no evidence that they did, and which they undoubtedly did 
not. They resorted to the mines from the halls of legisla- 
tion, and aided to establish a custom of appropriation for 
mining purposes, which was illegal under the modern con- 
struction of their innocently adopted statute. But it is im- 
portant that under the decisions of the Supreme Court in its 
early years, this system of appropriation of water for min- 
ing purposes grew up, and was recognized as legal. The 
judges who made those decisions were near the period of en- 
actment, and their views have the value of contemporary con- 
struction. The policy which they sanctioned was afterwards 
reviewed by the United States Supreme Court, and that court 
said: 'As respects the use .of water for mining purposes, the 
doctrines of the common law declaratory of the rights of 
riparian owners were, at an early day after the discovery of 
gold, found to be inapplicable, or applicable only in a very 
limited extent, to the necessity of miners, and inadequate 
to their protection;' and in another case the same court said 
that the views expressed, and the rulings made, in regard to 
the appropriation of water for mining purposes ' are equally 
applicable to the use of water on the public lands for pur- 
poses of irrigation. No distinction is made in those States 
and Territories by the customs of miners and settlers, or by 
the courts, in the rights of the first appropriator from the use 
made of water, if the use be a beneficial one.' 

" That tribunal recognized that the customs and necessi- 
ties of the people of this coast had moulded a common law 
for them in this particular, and that the common law of En- 
gland was inapplicable and mischievous, in that it was, as 
they said, ' incompatible with any extended diversion of wa- 



152 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

ter, and its conveyance to points from which it could not be 
restored to the stream.' 

" Colorado has put into its Constitution a provision recog- 
nizing the priority of right to water by priority of appropria- 
tion. Like California, it is arid, and needs irrigation to fer- 
tilize its fields. It has already solved this question, as it was 
proposed by the recent State Irrigator's Convention to solve 
it, by organic law. But the Supreme Court of that State 
had decided that the doctrine of riparian rights had no appli- 
cability to Colorado even before the adoption of the consti- 
tutional provision; because imperative necessity, unknown to 
the countries in which the common law originated, compelled 
Colorado to recognize appropriation. The reasoning of that 
court is so just, its recognition of the great necessities of the 
State so clear, and the parallel of circumstances with those 
of California so exact, that it is well to cite the decision at 
some length: — 

" ' It is contended that the common law principles of ripa- 
rian proprietorship prevailed in Colorado until 1876, and that 
the doctrine of priority of right to water by priority of ap- 
propriation thereof was first recognized and adopted in the 
Constitution. But we think the latter doctrine has existed 
since the date of the earliest appropriations of water within 
the boundaries of the State. The climate is dry, and the soil, 
when moistened only by the usual rainfall, is arid and unproduc- 
tive; except in a few favored sections, artificial irrigation for 
agriculture is an absolute necessity. Water in the various 
streams thus acquires a value unknown in moister climates. 
Instead of being a mere incident to the soil, it rises, when ap- 
propriated, to the dignity of a distinct usufructuary estate, or 
right of property. It has always been the policy of the Na- 
tional, as well as the Territorial and State Governments, to 
encourage the diversion and use of water for agriculture; and 
vast expenditures of time and money have been made in re- 
claiming and fertilizing by irrigation portions of our unproduc- 
tive territory. Houses have been built, permanent improve- 
ments made, the soil has been cultivated, and thousands of 
acres have been rendered immensely valuable, with the under- 
standing that appropriations of water would be protected. 
Deny the doctrine of priority, or superiority of right by pri- 
ority of appropriation, and a great part of the value of all 
this property is at once destroyed. . . . We conclude. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 153 

then, that the common-law doctrine, giving the riparian owner 
a right to the flow of water in its natural channel upon and 
over his lands, even though he makes no beneficial use 
thereof, is inapplicable to Colorado. Imperative necessity, 
unknown to the countries which gave it birth, compels the 
recognition of another doctrine in conflict therewith.' 

" It is a matter of extreme regret that a few more of the 
members of our own Supreme Court could not see judicially, 
or give due weight to, what the Supreme Court in Colorado 
so clearly sees and applies; viz., that it has been the policy 
of the National and State governments to encourage the di- 
version and use of water for agriculture; that vast expendi- 
tures of time and money have been made in reclaiming and 
fertilizing by irrigation, portions of our unproductive territory; 
that houses and villages have been built, costly, permanent 
improvements made, and hundreds of thousands of acres ren- 
dered immensely valuable, which else would have remained 
desert, with the understanding that appropriations of water 
would be protected, and that the denial of the right of ap- 
propriation destroys this vast property. 

" The Supreme Court of Nevada, in an early case, sanc- 
tioned the doctrine of riparian rights. But it has since re- 
treated from that ground, and approved the doctrine of appro- 
priation, holding that priority of appropriation is a test of 
superiority of right. Its views as to the great system of anti- 
riparianism, built up in the early days in this State, and the 
sanction it received from the courts, are expressed as follows: 
' In all the Pacific Coast States and Territories . . . the doc- 
trines of the common law, declaratory of the rights of ripa- 
rian proprietors respecting the use of running waters, were 
held to be inapplicable, or applicable to only a very limited 
extent, to the wants and necessities of the people, whether 
engaged in mining, agricultural, or other pursuits; and it was 
decided that prior appropriation gave the better right to the 
use of the running waters to the extent, in quantity and qual- 
ity, necessary for the use to which the waters were applied. 
This was the universal custom of the Coast, sanctioned by 
the laws and decisions of the courts in the respective States 
and Territories, and approved and followed by the Supreme 



154 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

Court of the United States.' It may therefore be said, on 
the testimony of this Supreme Court of Nevada, and the 
Supreme Court of the United States, that there is a universal 
custom or common law established in this State by the con- 
currence of miners, farmers, and courts, by which appropria- 
tion was established and riparianism rejected as the law of 
this State. 

"In the view of our high court, there is no public policy 
which can empower it to disregard or modify the common 
law of England because of a benefit to many persons; and 
it holds it doubtful, if it is to the common benefit, or the ben- 
efit of many persons, to promote the appropriation of water for 
agricultural purposes. Upon the latter proposition, the peo- 
ple need no decision; they are as nearly unanimous as pos- 
sible that the court is all wrong. As to the first proposition, 
if the principle of it had been adopted by thie Supreme Courts 
of New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Texas, Illinois, etc., the common-law doctrine of easement in 
ancient lights would be the law of this country, and such 
structures as the Nevada Block or Safe Deposit building, and 
the many palaces of trade in our growing cities, could not 
have been built without the payment of enormous sums of 
smart money; or, as the court puts it, ' on payment of due 
compensation.' But these courts, and others, recognized the 
argument ab inconvenienti, and enforced it. Did they not ' leg- 
islate in such manner as to deny citizens their vested rights' } 
Our Supreme Court would so characterize this action, and it 
refrains from imitating the example of most of the Supreme 
Courts of the Union in a parallel case. It is held more 
strictly by the tether of the common- law than the other 
courts are. It cites authorities from those courts to justify 
its adherence to the common law upon riparian rights, but 
underrates the example of the same courts where they depart 
from the common law because the reason for the law fails in 
their communities. But there are wide climatic differences 
between California and the States in question. West of the 
one-hundredth meridian, the country is arid; east of it, the 
climate approximates to that of England, and irrigation 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 155 

ditches are almost unknown. Regular rains, distributed 
through the season, obviate costly works for diversion and 
distribution of water, and leave no room for dissent from the 
English doctrine of riparian rights. Hence the courts follow 
the common law in that regard. They have no reason to do 
otherwise. What they will do where they find the common 
law ' not adapted to the necessities of our growing commu- 
nities,' they have shown. Those illustrious judges would have 
undoubtedly as freely decided that the common-law doctrine 
of riparian rights is on a level with the common-law doctrine 
of ancient lights, if they had lived in a country whose pros- 
perity depended upon diversion and irrigation; and that it 
could as little stand in the way of progress and civilization. 
We must have a common law for the region west of the one- 
hundredth meridian, and courts which can see its necessity, 
and enforce it. An eminent law writer (Wharton) has dis- 
cussed the proposition whether judges can or should legislate: 
' Judges are not legislators for the purpose of revolutionizing 
the law, but they are legislators for the purpose of evolving 
from it rules which should properly govern present issues, and 
winnowing from it limitations which are withered and dead. 
And when this duty — a duty which is a necessary incident of 
judicial office — is frankly recognized by the judiciary, the 
process of legal development and of suppression will be 
carried on more effectively and wisely than it can be done 
by those who shut their eyes to the duty. For no disclaimer 
can relieve the judiciary from the function of gradually mod- 
ifying the law, by adoption and rejection.' 

" It may be respectfully suggested that our Supreme 
Court fails to carry its premises to their logical conclusion. 
It holds that the common law of England was adopted in this 
State, and that in that law riparian rights are entrenched. 
The common law upon riparian rights is substantially as 
follows: — 

" ' Every proprietor of lands on the bank of a stream has 
an equal right to use the waters which flow in the stream, and 
consequently no proprietor can have the right to use the water 
to the prejudice of any other proprietor. W'ithout the con- 
sent of the other proprietors, no proprietor can either dimin- 



156 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

ish the quantity of water which would otherwise descend to 
the proprietors below, or throw the water back upon the pro- 
prietors above.' 

"The Supreme Court dispense with this rule of the 
common law, in favor of a suprariparian proprietor, by holding 
that he may use on the land at the head of his ditch, any 
reasonable quantity of water for irrigation, if he return the 
surplus to the stream. Suppose there is no surplus? But 
this scanty privilege is a modification of the common law, 
and not the original doctrine. It was not the common law 
in 1850. Since that date, certain judges of England have ex- 
pressed some hesitating assent to 'the American doctrine of 
appropriation,'inthecase of suprariparian proprietors; and hence 
a California court ventures also to give it a qualified assent. 
Are we, then, governed by the House of Lords in England, 
not by our own legislature and courts } The English courts 
are daily making laws adapted to their country, and thus 
our judges wait to apply them to ours. There should be law 
quotations telegraphed, like stock quotations, or the price 
of wheat. It would be strange if, in all the dictum and 
rubbish spoken by innumerable courts, there could not be 
found some warrant for this subservience to foreign tribunals; 
nevertheless, the better, safer, and more dignified rule would 
seem to be that laid down by an eminent law writer (Sedg- 
wick), who says: — 

'"It has been uniformly adjudged in this country, that 
the common law, however adopted, is in force here only so 
far as it is adapted to 02ir situation, zuaiits, and institutions. ' 

" To refuse to apply it where it is opposed to our situ- 
ation, wants, and institutions, is not to legislate; it is only to 
discriminate. 

" The common law was not adopted in this State, or 
any other, as a code, but as a ' rule of decision.' It is not 
compulsory, but advisory. It is useful only where it is reason- 
able. It depends for its applicability upon the soundness of 
the reasons supporting it, and the similarity of the condi- 
tions in given cases. It certainly stands upon no firmer 
footing with us than in England, and there judges daily en- 
large, contract, or explain it away. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 157 

" The recent advance in the EngHsh courts towards ap- 
propriation of water is an illustration of the flexibility of the 
common law, and their mode of treating it. As long as the 
only use for water was to float craft, or drive machinery, 
they adhered to the stricter doctrine. But of late years the 
use of flooding has become partially understood in the west 
and south of England, to increase the produce of grass by 
converting the land into water meadows. Poor heaths have 
been converted into luxuriant pastures by the use of irriga- 
tion alone. Quick to detect changes in public wants, the 
courts have recognized this additional use of water; but, as 
every water course has an owner, and only the owners seek 
to divert its water, the decisions have not advanced farther 
than to favor, in some degree, the claims of riparian appro- 
priators to beneficial use. Upon the strength of such inti- 
mations we also advance a short step, not venturing to go 
alone, or to do what the same English courts would do in a 
proper case — set aside all previous adjudications to serve the 
public interests, as did the United States Supreme Court in 
the matter of admiralty jurisdiction, and our courts generally 
in the case of ancient lights. 

" A disheartening portion of the opinion of the majority 
of our court, is that wherein they undervalue the benefits 
that have been gained under the appropriation system, and 
discredit those of the future. With such impressions upon 
that vital subject, it was easier to decree practically that irri- 
gation in this State shall be confined to narrow margins 
along water courses, and that the great plains beyond shall 
rest in perpetual barrenness. If an outlet of escape from 
this condition was left open, by condemning upon compen- 
sation all the available waters of the State, it is through a 
course of expense so frightfully great that no sane man can 
expect to see it realized. The day that decision was ren- 
dered, running water, to which there had hardly been a claim- 
ant except the industrious appropriators, became worthless to 
them, and worth hundeds of millions of blackmail to loiter- 
ers. Such counties as Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus, Kern, 
Tulare, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino, such towns as 



158 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

Fresno, Bakersfield, Riverside, Pasadena, etc., received a stag- 
gering blow, from which they can recover only by a return 
to what was before believed to be the policy of the law. The 
curse of disputed land title is not worse than that of disputed 
water rights; and where water is a condition of existence, as 
in the region named, the curse is fearfully aggravated. On 
that day a hundred million dollars invested in irrigation 
ditches, and thrice that amount of improved farms, orchards^ 
and vineyards, became the sport of litigation, with the disad- 
vantage of prejudgment. 

" The decision was made in a case not necessarily call- 
ing for it. The plaintiffs claimed under a grant of swamp 
lands' from the State, the condition of the grant being that 
they should free the land from water by draining it; or by 
turning the water away from it. But the plaintiffs claimed 
the right to have all the water flow to these lands that would, 
in the course of nature, flow there; in other words, they 
held the land on condition of making it dry, and they claimed 
the water to keep it wet. Again, the decision deals with, 
and virtually denies, the right of the defendants to divert the 
waters of Kern River for irrigation purposes, because, say the 
court, the plaintiffs are riparian proprietors, not on Kern 
River, but in a swamp that is made by the chance overflow 
of certain lakes, which are not a part of that river. The 
question has been asked why, in a matter of so much mo- 
ment as that of laying down a rule of property affecting so 
seriously all the business interests of the State, the court did 
not wait, as requested, until a case arose where the facts de- 
manded it. 

" As the water that reaches the plaintiff's swamp lands 
is that only which overflows during the brief period of melt- 
ing snows from Buena Vista and Kern Lakes, it necessarily 
follows that these lakes must be maintained to keep the 
swamp lands so supplied. Professor George Davidson, in 
his report upon irrigation in California, speaks of these lakes 
as he found them as early in the year as May, as lying in a 
temperature of 130°, and being ' very green, warm, and unfit 
for domestic use.' This enormous heat, and the cessation, so 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 159 

early in the spring, of water supply from the mountains, 
' causes a large area of land,' says another observer, ' to be- 
come alternately wet and dry, producing a great mass of 
vegetation, the decay of which causes a good deal of mala- 
ria, carrying sickness over a wide region, and as far as 
Bakersfield. Enormous swarms of miosquitoes are generated, 
which infest the swamp and lakes, stinging cattle and horses 
to madness, not only around the lake, but at long distances 
from it. Cattle drinking the water, or feeding at the lake, 
are sickened by fevers, and the lake becom.es a most annoy- 
ing and deadly nuisance. It is a sheet of ever-varying, 
stagnant water, good for nothing but producing malaria and 
mosquitoes. Even the fish propagated in its. waters are not 
fit to eat.' 

" The direct effect of the decision is to perpetuate this 
great nuisance, which the police power of the State should be 
employed to abate. But this is of less consequence, as, if the 
great system of reclamation by irrigation inaugurated in the 
southern valley is to be stopped, it matters not whether the 
air in the solitudes so enforced is poisonous or not. They 
will necessarily relapse to their desolate condition of twenty 
years ago, when the traveler passed over fifty miles at a 
stretch without finding a human habitation. Under the sys- 
tem of riparianism, as expounded by our judges, the great 
plains will again become, as they were for the first twenty years 
of the State's existence, habitable only by wild hogs and go- 
phers. The lakes and morasses may therefore be allowed to 
remain, to yield their fragrant tribute to the English common 
law. 

" The artificial and fragmentary way in which great ques- 
tions are sometimes tried in courts prevents a large consid- 
eration of them. It may be insisted that in this case, under 
the issues, all these considerations were not, and could not be, 
urged. Yet, under all disadvantages, it could not be over- 
looked, even if underrated, that one side of the question rep- 
resented the reclamation of our broad deserts and of these 
swamps, the health of the community, its prosperity in the 
largest sense, and the creation of productive property. On 



160 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

the other was a policy that would keep these lakes full of 
stagnant water, compel the overflow of Kern River to find a 
perpetual deposit there, destroy the health of the region, in- 
fest it with intolerable pests, condemn the uplands to sterility, 
and break up inestimable industries. Every farmer in the 
great valleys was interested in the decision of the question, 
for all live by irrigation. Every dweller in farm houses near 
these and other such lakes, and in the surrounding villages, 
had a vital interest to know if miasmatic air should steal^ 
under the protection of the law, into his home at night. The 
merchants and manufacturers of the State had an interest in 
its decision; for if the farmer was ruined, he could not buy 
or pay.. All who desired the State to be developed, its vast 
arid plains to yield the abundance of which, under conditions, 
they are capable, were interested in it. It is in the view of 
this wide and absorbing interest of the whole State that this 
discussion of the facts and principles involved is attempted. 
The personal aspects of this causi'. celebre, however important 
to the litigants, sink into insignificance compared with the 
great interest of the State in the ultimate determination of 
the question whether the means which, as we shall see, all 
countries physically conditioned like ours have employed to 
promote their growth and happiness can be permitted in this 
State, or shall be denied because countries differently cir- 
cumstanced have never felt the need of, or employed them. 
The system of appropriation is not hostile to the real inter- 
ests of the riparian proprietor, provided he will avail himself 
of its advantages. It is inconsistent with the practice of 
v.'asting the waters of the State by letting them run id-ly 
into the unthankful ocean; but" it is not inconsistent with the 
use of water by any one, riparian proprietor or not, who will 
take the necessary steps to appropriate and put the water to 
some beneficial use. Nearly all riparian proprietors are ap- 
propriators in the sense here intended. They have put up 
their notices claiming water, and dug their ditches leading to 
their irrigated fields, or to tanks for stock. The decision of 
the Supreme Court is hurtful to such proprietors in most 
cases; for they need to irrigate over wider spaces more liber- 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 161 

ally than the limiting words of the court permit. Such ri- 
parian appropriators are injured by the new departure in 
law, as much as any other. Water is so precious in this State 
that every means must be used to husband it. Every drop 
that falls into the sea has failed of its mission. In the Coast 
Range, where thin threads of water run, and are apt to dry 
up, or sink away in the hot summers, it would be well to im- 
itate the example of the old padres, who concreted the beds 
of the little streams, or made concrete ditches along their 
banks. This preserves the water, and it is appropriation as 
well. 

'■ The doctrine of riparian ownership will be very diffi- 
cult of application in this State, for other physical reasons 
than those existing in its climate. All the streams of South- 
ern California, after they leave their rocky canon beds, run 
through shifting sands. In many cases they have no defined 
banks, or steady course, but shift their direction under the 
effect of storms. These shifting streams break away, during 
high water, from their temporary beds, and take new courses, 
often widely diverging from previous ones. The river affected 
by this suit will illustrate. In 1862 it ran below where Ba- 
kersfield now stands, southeasterly, and discharged into the 
east end of Kern Lake, when there was water enough to get 
through the sands so far. In 1867 it changed, during a 
storm, to what is now called Old River, and discharged 
through one fork at the west end of the lake, and through 
another still farther west into the slough connecting that lake 
with Buena Vista Lake. It now runs still farther west in 
New River, and discharges northwest of Buena Vista Lake 
into Buena Vista Slough, whence it drops back, southerly, 
to the lake, in an opposite direction from Buena Vista Swamp. 
The point of discharge, in each case, is about ten miles from 
the previous one. The original United States surveys, made 
in 1855, show a still wider divergence of this shifting chan- 
nel. Such rivers refuse to be governed by the decrees of 
courts that ' inseparably annex them to the soil, not as an 
easement or appurtenance, but as part and parcel of it.' An 
appropriator easily adapts his means of diversion to such 
11 



162 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

streams; but a riparian proprietor finds his inseparable annex 
nearly as fleeting as the clouds that sail over his land. In 
whatever light the matter is viewed, the conclusion comes ir- 
resistibly back, that the laws made for a country so different 
in all physical aspects as England is from California, cannot, 
and ought not to be enforced here. 

" In the foreign possessions of England, the practice of 
appropriation prevails over the doctrine of riparian rights, 
wherever irrigation is a necessity. It is so in India and in 
Australia. India has gigantic works for systematic irrigation. 
Three hundred and seventy millions of British money are be- 
ing expended in that country to supplement a system older 
than our era. Professor George Davidson reports that the 
whole breadth of the base of the peninsula of India, sweep- 
ing in a great curve from the delta of the Ganges to the 
<delta of the Indus, is the field of a vast system of irrigation. 
The supply of water is in the Himalayas, where snows en- 
sure an unceasing supply. The Rocky and Sierra Nevada 
Mountains are the Himalayas of the arid region of the 
United States, while the broad areas of irrigable lands which 
adjoin them are, perhaps, equal in extent to the great plains 
of India. For over two thousand years the people of India 
have cultivated by means of canals and reservoirs, and En- 
glish capital has projected and commenced great works, with 
better engineering science and wider reach. The effects are 
already seen in the world's markets by the competition of the 
wheat and cotton of India. The rains of India are usually 
confined to a single month. Though copious for that period, 
they do not give the continued moisture necessary for crops. 
In the densely populated parts of the country, two crops an- 
nually are necessary to feed the people, and these can be 
had only by utilizing, by irrigation, the water caused by the 
melting snows stored in the mountains. The alternative of 
less production is starvation, with the attendant fevers. The 
director of the Ganges Canal Water Works states, as a strik- 
ing advantage of irrigation in that country, the substitution 
of a constant for a fluctuating return of produce. Alterna- 
tions of production and failure consequent upon non-irrigable 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 163 

agriculture, are significant of enormous misery among the 
laboring classes. These have disappeared as the great works 
inaugurated by English capitalists have become operative. 
In a community dependent for its means of subsistence on 
the soil, the importance of having thus excluded the disturb- 
ing influence of variable seasons need not be insisted on. 
All the benefits of security for capital invested in cultivation 
are obtained; the revenue fluctuates only with the price of 
produce, and the working classes have cheap food, and a con- 
stant demand for their labor. The horrible famines of India, 
the sickening details of which have, from time to time, reached 
our distant ears, cease where irrigation gives steady returns 
to the labors of the husbandman. In India the Government 
possesses the right of property in all running waters whatso- 
ever. It may dispose'of them forever, if it thinks fit, and the 
doctrine of riparian rights has no part in the economy of that 
country. 

" Irrigration is resorted to in all countries where much of 
the land must otherwise remain barren from drought. In 
Egypt it was practiced two thousand year before Christ, by 
means of great canals and artificial lakes. Extensive works, 
intended for the irrigation of large districts, existed in times 
of remote antiquity, in Persia; China, and other parts of the 
East, and such works still exist, and provide food for the 
teeming millions who would else perish. Irrigation is a pow- 
erful agent in the plains of nonthern Italy, and the Govern- 
ment recognizes its economic importance, encourages it by 
every means, and is especially careful in the education of civil 
engineers, the highest grade among whom is the hydraulic 
engineer. The length of canals in Lombardy alone, is over 
five thousand miles, and there is scarcely an acre of the Mi- 
lanese that is without several intersecting canals. In round 
numbers there are a million acres irrigated in Lombardy. The 
system has been perfecting for seven hundred years, and has 
gone on under all changes of dynasty and all civil commo- 
tions. It has converted a barren waste into a garden. The 
right of property in all running waters, whether of rivers, 
steams, or torrents, appertains to the Government. While the 



164 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

Government disposes of the waters of all rivers and canals, 
it recognizes the claims of towns, or associations of proprie- 
tors, to the supplies which they have enjoyed by prescriptive 
title for long periods of time. Private rights to divert water 
have grown up to such extent that the right asserted by the 
State, is nearly a barren one, and its enforcement has reference 
rather to administration and police duties than to direct 
financial considerations. In exercising its right of property 
in waters available for irrigation, the Government of Lom- 
bardy follows one of three courses. First, it disposes of the 
water in absolute property, to parties paying certain estab- 
lished sums for the right to divert it. Second, it grants 
perpetual leases of the water on payment of a certain an- 
nual amount. Third, it grants a temporary lease for a vari- 
able time at a certain annual rate, the water reverting to the 
State on the termination of the lease. By far the most com- 
mon of these courses is the first, and it operates the most ben- 
eficially. The origin of the system of irrigation was with 
the great landed proprietors upon their properties. With 
the revival of knowledge in Italy, the art of hydraulic engi- 
neering was called into existence, and the extensive demand 
for skill in its details created, early, a supply of men familiar 
with all of these. Hence the remarkable number and great tal- 
ent of executive engineers, by whose exertions avast net-work 
of irrigation channels was spread over the face of the entire 
country. All this has operated powerfully in producing the 
social prosperity for which the irrigated districts are remark- 
able. In Spain and the south of France, and considerably 
in Belgium, irrigation is extensively practiced, so that it may 
be said that the great valleys of the Po, Adige, Tagus, and 
Douroare subjected to systematic irrigation, enormously add- 
ing to their productiveness. Such a system is entirely im- 
possible where the right of the land-owner on a stream to 
own and control the water is admitted. The water is con- 
ducted for miles away from the stream, and from the land of 
the riparian proprietor. He may have his share on the terms 
of other users of the vital fluid; but he cannot claim a supe- 
rior right because his land is nearer, or better situated than 
another's. And he has no power to determine that the water 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 165 

shall run idly by him to the sea, and lose nothing by non- 
user. Such doctrines may do for humid countries, where 
water is an obstacle; not for arid countries, where it is the 
supreme blessing — the essential of the community's preser- 
vation. 

" The climate, productions, and general characteristics of 
these countries resemble strongly those of California, espe- 
cially of the southern part of the State. A system that has 
made possible their dense populations must be favorable, it 
must be indispensable, to our prosperity. Our population is 
thin, compared with that of our sister States. We have a cul- 
tivable area equal to New England, New York, and Penn- 
sylvania, with a population of a million, while theirs is four- 
teen millions. Compared to the populations of other coun- 
tries of the world, which resort to irrigation, ours is insig- 
nificant. If we are to observe the law of growth, we must 
have its conditions. We cannot maintain a population be- 
yond our means to feed. We cannot feed a large popula- 
tion without irrigation, or with irrigation only on narrow rib- 
bons along the river beds, which the Supreme Court permits 
to riparianists only. Imagination cannot depict the horrors 
of famine, misery, and death that would follow this rule, 
sternly applied to the plain of the Indus or of the Ganges. 
It would produce a revolution if enforced in the basin of the 
Po. With similar climatic conditions, our present interests 
and future necessities run parallel with those of other arid 
countries, not with those of humid regions, like England and 
the Atlantic States. In the maxims and practice of coun- 
tries resembling our own in this particular, we may find use- 
ful guidance. Our great plains and valleys must be utilized; 
our foot-hills must be clothed with cultivated verdure; our 
streams must be taken from their useless and shifting beds 
and given the widest scope. Then we may create an em- 
pire here, of health, prosperity, and development, while the 
alternative is a dwindled population and wasted resources. 
The better work had made j^ood progress before the halt 
called by this decision. It may not be doubted that it will 
be resumed, and any obstacle will be legally swept away by 
imperious public necessity, like chaff from the threshing floor." 



166 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

BIOGRAPHIES. 

IT has been said that the reading of " Plutarch's Lives " 
effected the social and political revolution of France. If 
the proper study of mankind is man, it is a study to which 
the biography of every one who has gained fame or fortune 
is the contribution of a text-book. In the New Empire are 
scores of men who have attained both, by their genius and 
their industry. Many of them were pioneers to the Pacific 
Coast, and others were early occupants of new mines, or the 
first to perceive the promise of investments which others had 
passed by, and so in one way or another, and notably by ways 
honorable and upright, these men have reaped the rewards 
which crown the genius of industry. 

Nations are made up of individuals, and nations that are 
ruled by constitutional forms have governments that are the 
result of accepting successful experiments as their model. If 
all exploits in the science of government that were proved 
to be failures, had been accepted as precedents to be' copied 
and imitated, statecraft would have been an aggregation of 
mistakes, a hump-backed and reel-footed science, and human 
government would be now a case of chronic rickets, instead 
of a system growing yearly to a more refined adjustment to 
the manifold necessities and useful diversities of the race. 

Applying this use of the example of success to the indi- 
vidual, there is a well-defined utility in studying the lives of 
successful men, and in each of such lives there must be some 
noble elements which teach and exhort. The study of 
" Plutarch's Lives " was a stimulus to the intellect of France, 
not because it made of any Frenchman an Alexander or a 
Caesar, a Cicero or a Publicola, but because it moved French- 
men to make the best use of the opportunities within their 
field of action. So the few examples for which we have 
space here, it is believed, will move the growing generation 
on this coast to sustained effort, to hope under adverse cir- 
cumstances, to courage in the face of difficulties, to the en- 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 16T 

durance of defeat with patience, and to the celebration of 
success with moderation. 

We deal, in this list of worthies, with four men who have 
reached and now occupy seats in the Senate of the United 
States. We select them because of the intrinsic worth of 
their lives, as examples of the value of readiness, address,, 
and application to the conquest of difficulties which others 
avoided, and also to correct a prevalent Eastern impression 
that these gentlemen are in the Senate only because they are 
rich- They are there because they represent the business 
classes of the New Empire. In them are the qualities which 
have conquered, and will continue to win, successes in our 
commercial and financial activities. In the East the lawyer 
is universally the recipient of public honors. The successful 
lawyer is selected. The presence of lawyers in the Senate 
has made it necessary to propose a law that they shall not 
practice in cases which may be affected by legislation. Surely 
it is to the credit of the New Empire that it puts its business 
men into the Senate, and that they have great fortunes proves 
onl\' that they are great business men. The East is welcome 
to its senatorial lawyers; we make no issue against the prac- 
tice of sending them there, but we refuse to admit the pro- 
priety of an issue made upon the representatives of that keen 
and unconquerable business genius which has developed on 
this coast, within less than forty years, the institutions of a 
great and refined civilization. 

JOHN r. JONES. 

Senator Jones is peculiar amongst the coast senators by 
reason of his long, continuous service, being now in his third 
term. It is believed that except for the constitutional pro- 
vision which bars him out, his public career would have car- 
ried him to the Presidency. But he was born abroad, in Here- 
fordshire, England, and although his parents brought him to 
this country the following year, and he is in all things an 
American, his alien nativity closes against him the two public 
offices which are higher than the Federal Senate. 

His father was a marble cutter, and on landing in this 



168 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

country in 1830, pushed westward to Cleveland, where he es- 
tablished his trade and reared a family of thirteen children. 
The future Senator was educated in the public schools of 
Cleveland, and that he made the best use of their opportu- 
nities is proved by the keenness and culture of his intellect. 
His education was carried on at the same time he was master- 
ing his father's trade; for in those days the owner of a manu- 
facturing business or handicraft was not forbidden to teach it 
to his sons. After leaving school, he worked for his fathen 
and also got some practical insight into finance by employ- 
ment in the counting-room of a bank. In 1850 he and his 
brother Henry decided to come to California, and the way 
they chose to make the journey sounds like a fable. The bark 
Eureka, which had been in the Lake Erie trade, was fitted out at 
Cleveland, and with the Jones boys as passengers, went out 
through the Welland Canal into and down the St Lawrence 
into the North Atlantic, and then around Cape Horn to San 
Francisco Bay. They left Ohio in the early spring, but the 
summer, autumn, and winter of 1850 were long spent before 
their voyage ended. They went at once to the mines, and on 
Feather River, and in Yuba, Calaveras, and Tuolumne Coun- 
ties got that practical experience which later on was to serve 
the Senator at the turning point of his fortunes. Wherever he 
was, he was noted for his studious habits. In this respect he 
greatly resembled Col. E. D. Baker, who in camp and cabin 
was always using the best means at hand to increase and en- 
rich his store of knowledge. In this trait they both were ot 
intellectual kin to Daniel Webster, whose retentive mind de- 
manded constant additions to its full treasury. Young Jones, 
though scarcely more than a boy in years, was shortl}' elected 
to the magistracy; a little later he was chosen sheriff. Then 
came trouble with the Indians, and he volunteered, and did 
some good fighting. He now began to be known as a public 
speaker of quite unusual power, a well-equipped debater, a 
lover of fair play, and tolerant of the views of others while 
■able to maintain his own with a vigor that made him a for- 
midable antagonist. His legislative experience began in the 
California State Senate in 1863, and he served until 1867, 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 169 

when he ran for Lieutenant-Governor, and went down, leading 
his ticket. This reverse, for the time, arrested his public 
career and threw him back upon business. In 1868 he was 
made superintendent of the Crown Point Mine, the oldest of 
the Gold Hill Comstocks. It was a property that had not paid 
for years, and its abandonment had been seriously considered. 
The mine communicated with the Kentuck and Yellow Jacket, 
and in the first year of Mr. Jones' control, the firing of the 
Yellow Jacket caused the greatest catastrophe in all the 
history of mining on the Pacific Coast. The fire was in the 
800 feet level. The day shift had nearly all gone below, and 
forty-five men perished. In this emergency the superintend- 
ent showed himself entirely a hero, and to-day throughout 
Nevada and in every mining camp on the coast, the story 
of his courage and humanity is told over and over again. It 
was the foundation and beginning of his popular hold upon 
Nevada, that has given him longer continuous service in the 
Federal Senate than any man from the West has ever been 
permitted to enjoy. i\fter rescuing a great many cage loads 
of miners, on the second day of the fire, it became necessary 
to send some one to the bottom of the 800 feet level to cut 
the air pipes. Mr. Jones went himself, accompanied by a boy 
who volunteered to hold the candles. Stepping on the 
cage, they were lowered into that pit of smoke and flame. In 
twenty minutes the return signal was given, and they reached 
the top barely alive. 

He had faith in deep mining, and pushed Crown Point 
down to 1,300 feet, where, lying in a solid body 200 feet long, 
he struck the first bonanza, and that instant became a million- 
aire. This bonanza yielded $30,000,000." 

Mr. Jones was active in developing Nevada properties. 
His ore mills soon yielded him an income of $30,000 a month, 
and his money was not sequestered, but was put into produc- 
tive enterprises that employed labor and stimulated com- 
merce. He did not get money to play the miser, but his gen- 
erosity increased with his riches, against the rule which yokes 
wealth and parsimony too often together. In 1873 he was 
ftrst elected to the Federal Senate, and in that body his worth 



170 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

was soon recognized, and his influence on more than one oc 
casion has determined the course of important legislation. 
Had it not been for him, the restoration of the silver dollar to 
our coinage would not have been accomplished. He opened 
that great discussion in a speech delivered April 24, 1876, 
and he closed it February 14, 1878, in a speech that will live 
as long as the precious metals preserve their universal de- 
sirability and are sought by man. In this speech were many 
gems, but his vindication of the miners of this coast will be 
cherished the world over as the miner's best certificate of 
character. Senator Jones opened this debate to one Senate, 
he closed it to another; but in the two years' debate that lay 
between not a single salient point escaped him, nor did he 
lose sight of a single feature in the procession of events 
throughout the world which during that time would illustrate 
or enrich his argument. The position he gained in that dis- 
cussion fortified him in the respect of his supporters and his 
antai^'onists. His frankness of nature revolts against the 
lines of party when they seem to him limits to truth. His 
declaration on the race question was the keenest analysis of 
the relations of whites and blacks in the South that has ever 
been made, though it was against a tenet of his party. 

His official duties have never been neglected, though 
his private affairs have drawn upon his energies. Helpful- 
ness to friends, and a desire to stimulate the industrial activ- 
ities of the coast, have somewhat impaired the wealth won 
by his boldness as a practical miner; but patience and pru- 
dence and a courage unfaltering, have relaid the foundations 
of a fortune for him that promises to be the largest yet 
amassed in the New 'Empire. 

The Senator's wife is worthy to share his honors and his 
fortune. His own social attractions are very endearing, and 
Mrs. Jones, accomplished and charming, presents the quite 
uncommon spectacle of a brilliant as well as amiable wife to 
a brilliant and amiable man, and this must be the reason why 
to their friends their life seems a courtship and their home 
graced with contentment. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 171 



GEORGE HEARST. 



Senator Hearst is a fine example of clear grit. There 
are some men whom fortune downs, and they stay down- 
There are others whom the fickle jade may trip, but they 
will not stay tripped. She has tried more than once, in 
finance and politics, a catch-as-catch-can with George Hearst, 
but he never stayed thrown, and now is beyond risk of mis- 
fortune in any encounter of that kind. In d'escent he is of 
parallel lineage with Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun; 
for his and their Scotch ancestors settled together in South 
Carolina at about the same time, and their careers ran to- 
gether. Mr. Hearst's father was a native of South Carolina, 
who settled in Missouri while it was a Territory, and there 
George was born September 3, 1820, making him eleven 
months and eighteen days older than the State of Missouri. 
He got the sturdy experiences and hardy lessons of frontier 
life, and made good use of the primitive school facilities of 
the new country. In 1850 he came to California overland, 
made money in placer mines, and went broke in quartz. Get- 
ting a stake in the placers, he went back to quartz, and was 
mining in Nevada County when the Washoe excitement broke 
out in 1859. He had seen the black ore from Mt. Davidson, 
and an assay proved to him that it had in it silver at the rate 
of a dollar a pound. He got an outfit, and crossed the ridge 
into what was then Utah. He found only a score of men on 
the ground, and the prospecting had gone as far as only a 
few pits in the ground, not more than four feet deep. Hearst 
was almost the only one who knew the value of the ore for 
silver. They were all after gold. He remained six weeks, 
and decided that the discovery was of immense importance, 
took an interest in the Ophir, and went back to Nevada City 
to get the money to pay for it. Returning, he began work 
on his claim, getting out the free gold with a Mexican ar- 
rastra, and sacking the pulp for shipment to San Francisco. 
After sending down forty-five tons at a freight cost of $500 a 
ton, they found it could not be sold at any price. This reads 
like a fable at this end of the output of the bonanzas, but it 



172 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

is the sober truth. At last a bold metallurgist agreed to work 
it for $450 a ton. It yielded $3,800 a ton, and when this was 
coined into silver dollars at the mint, it settled the destiny of 
the Washoe country. Mr. Hearst sold half of his claim and 
bought more, and in 186© revisited Missouri to support the 
declining years of his mother, ^nd during this dutiful sojourn 
married the very accomplished lady who has since cheered 
and greatly guided his career. Returning to California in 
1862, he resumed mining on the Comstock, and by 1865 was 
a millionaire. In 1866 he was for the third time downed by 
financial reverses, but going into San Francisco real estate, he 
soon got ahead a few hundred thousand, and went back to 
mining, in which he has since made a matter of $20,000,000. 
He owns mines or mining interests from Dakota to Mexico, 
and his income is put at $2,000 a day. His public career 
began in 1865 as a member of the California Senate. In 
1882 he was a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, 
but was defeated by General Stoneman, who in turn appointed 
him to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused 
by the death of Gen. John F. Miller. He was in the City of 
Mexico when informed of his appointment, and went directly 
from the capital of one Republic to that of the other. His 
service in the Senate has made him popular in that body and 
strengthened him at home, so that he is already prominently 
spoken of in the East as a candidate for the vice -presidency. 
His friends are confident that if he wants it he will get it, for 
that is Uncle George's way. 

LELAND STANFORD. 

Senator Leland Stanford is of English and New English 
ancestry. His family was on this continent as early as 1644. 
His father, Josiah Stanford, was a native of Massachusetts; 
but when he was four years old the march westward began, 
and the family halted in New York, which was then frontier, 
and there Josiah grew to manhood, and was a successful 
farmer. Leland was born on his father's farm, March 9, 1824, 
and in that morally and physically excellent rural life his 
youth was passed. He was well educated and approached 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 173 

manhood in that even balance of wholesome mind and person 
which certify to the fidelity of parents and the tractability of 
children. In 1845 he chose the legal profession and began 
its study with Wheaton, Doolittle & Hadley, in Albany. It 
was to be his destiny not to practice law, and perhaps it is 
because he did not that his country has in him an intel- 
lect as broad as it is vigorous; for it has been well said of law 
practice that, while it sharpens, it also narrows the mind. 
However, his legal study and admission to the bar was the 
perhaps unconscious preliminary survey of a path since held 
to be necessary to the feet of successful business men; for our 
best educators defend law schools maintained by the State 
upon the distinct ground that a law course is the most im- 
portant part of a business man's education, and that inas- 
much as the business men of the country are those whose 
activities generate its revenues, hold it equal in rivalry with 
other nations, promote its schools, sustain the different es- 
tablishments of religion, foster art and equip science for con- 
quest, therefore the State, in its scheme of public education, 
should consider the best means of their complete preparation 
for a career which affects interests so thoroughly compacted 
with the national life. When this argument needs an illus- 
tration, it may be found in Leland Stanford. 

After admission to the bar, he set his face westward, as 
his grandsire had done before him, and in 1848 settled in his 
profession in Port Washington, Wisconsin. Two years later 
he returned to Albany and married Miss Jane Lathrop. 
This happy and well-assorted union seems to have put him in 
the path of destiny. He found the practice of law so differ- 
ent from the elevating study of its principles, and so felt 
within him capacities for a different career, that he gave up 
for good a profession which forced him into the disputes of 
others, and in 1852 furnished that evidence of fitness for 
great things which every man displayed who came to this 
coast, remote and little known, under novel conditions of life 
and commerce, to seek a fortune. 

Here he went at once into the trying labors of the State's 
great industry, and at Michigan Bluff, on the American River, 



174 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

for four years took manfully his share of the toils and hard- 
ships of a mining camp. In 1856, with the avails of his 
mining and in association with his brothers, he began mer- 
chandising at Sacramento, and there laid the real foundation 
of a career which has attracted and charmed the attention of 
the whole business world. In 1857 he was a candidate for 
State Treasurer, but was defeated by Hon. Thomas Finley, 
of El Dorado. 

In 1859 he ran for Governor, but was again defeated. 
In 1 86 1 he ran for the same office again; was elected by a 
large majority, running 6,000 votes ahead of his ticket, and 
served with distinguished credit in a time that tried the intel- 
lectual and tactical resources to a degree that broke weak 
men down. This service for the time closed his political 
career. Incident to the stirring events of 1861, when for a 
time California had seemed to hesitate in deciding whether 
her allegiance lay with the old Union, into which her path 
had been hewn by patriots, or with the new Confederacy, 
which genius and ambition had just baptized with independ- 
ence, and committed to the arbitrament of battle, there had 
developed the need of a closer contact between this State and 
the East. The military operations of the Government re- 
quired it, and the time had gone by when the whole region 
subject to national jurisdiction, lying between the Rocky 
Mountains and the sea, could be subjected to the means of 
communication furnished by the control of San Francisco 
Bay. In this necessity for a more perfect union was the germ 
of the transcontinental railway. Of this wonderful achieve- 
ment of human energy and genius and courage, we have else- 
where treated. Let it be said here that without the calm and 
inflexible spirit of Leland Stanford, the Sacramento mer- 
chant, no part of the transcontinental system of railways 
would have been built or controlled by California capital. 
But for him this national convenience and coast necessity 
would have been created and owned by Boston or New York, 
to serve as a siphon that should drain our profits and avails to 
the East, and make no return. The story is too long to tell. 
In the beginning Governor Stanford and his associates were 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 175 

sneered at, guyed, and traduced as visionaries. The Sierra 
Nevadas were believed to be impenetrable and impassable, 
and if they were passed, beyond lay the weary, dreary desert, 
which the Forty-niner remembered with aversion as the 
scene of his sufferings and perhaps the grave of his compan- 
ions. Nearly everybody said that it was against common 
sense, this attempt to build such a railroad, for did not the 
snow sometimes lie on the Sierras forty feet deep ! Did not 
the Donner party die, or live in worse than death, right where 
this line would run! But those things disapproved or undis- 
cerned by common sense are favored and clearly seen by the 
keener vision of that sense which is not common. And so 
through appalling difficulties, financial and topographical, the 
road was pressed to a finish. Wearied by the burden, the 
story goes that the completed enterprise was put on the mar- 
ket by its authors and finishers, but it found no buyers, nor 
did its stocks when men in San Francisco were implored to 
take them. So that which he had builded Governor Stanford 
was compelled to hold and administer, and in later years 
many a jealous man has gnawed his heart at the success in 
which he was offered, but spurned, participation. 

Through this successfully managed enterprise, great 
wealth has come, and Leland Stanford ranks foremost 
amongst the world's capitalists. In his different operations 
on the coast he employs and pays wages to between twelve 
and fifteen thousand men. His wealth has gone into all 
kinds of constructive and productive enterprises. If he saw 
a manufacturing or other business languishing for lack of 
energy or capital, he bought it without haggling, equipped it 
for success, and made it succeed. 

In 1883 he visited Europe, and there, in old Florence, 
came the unspeakable sorrow of his life, in the death of his 
son and only child, Leland, a youth of parts most promising, 
in whom were centered hopes the loftiest and affections the 
tenderest. 

Throughout their life together Mr. and Mrs. Stanford 
have been known for wisely generous support of the good 
works of charity and education. In them pity's sweet fount- 



176 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

ain never ran dry, and its affluence took substantial forms. 
The kindergarten system of San Francisco, a rich benefac- 
tion, grew up under Mrs. Stanford's wise endowments. In 
their retreats and asylums hundreds of orphaned children 
have blessed the spirit of motherhood incarnate in her. At 
her old home in Albany she is building and endowing a 
home for aged women, at a cost of hundreds of thousands. 

On their return from Europe they perfected together a 
plan long entertained for the endowment of a university.* 

In 1885, the California Legislature elected Governor 
Stanford to the Federal Senate. It was done as a voluntary 
recognition of his benefactions to the State, his knowledge of 
its needs, his interest in its development, and his primacy as a 
business man. The East has talked about our rich Senators. 
She has men of great wealth in that body, and can it be said 
of them as of Senatrr Stanford, that this honor came without 
the indication of a wish to add it to the laurels of a busy and 
beneficent life? 

In 1884 his nomination to the presidency was mooted, 
and since his senatorial service has shown the profundity of 
his experience, his ripe learning, his judicial temper and his 
executive force, the proposition is renewed to give the 
country the benefit of his qualities in that great office which 
is now so ably filled that the succession next chosen must be 
of superior merit. 

The mere politicians will not agree to such a selection. 
They will conjure objections as countless as the phantasies 
that come in the dreams of drunkenness or surfeit. But the 
people may conclude that the man whose genius has wrought 
out business enterprises which adorn and dignify the century, 
and whose benevolence has spanned the continent in quest of 
God's poor, forgotten by the priest and the Levite, and whose 
culture and conception of its need in others has prompted the 
gift of tens of millions to found what America has not, a 
complete university, may also as president represent the re- 
finements of our civilization and the energies of our people. 
He represents, too, the right use of wealth, which, if gathered 
in unwise ways and spent in ostentation, affects the masses to 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 177 

a sinister temper; but gained by him in adventure and by 
making no man poorer, for it was added by his creative 
energies to the commonwealth before it became his personal 
possession, and spent in the spirit of a Christian stewardship, 
his wealth was won in ways that benefited others and is de- 
voted to the good of mankind. 



* We cannot more completely describe the extent and intent of this university 
endowment, than by reproducing this editorial from a San Francisco paper, 
printed a few days after the gift was passed to the Trustees, in November, 1685. 

"On the 14th instant this city was the scene of an edu- 
cational foundation that is destined to be the initiative of the 
most richly endowed institution of learning in the world. 

"There has been talk of some public recognition of this 
benefaction that shall take the form of a permanent memorial 
to the two founders of Leland Stanford, Junior, University; 
but it occurs to us that their memorial is already provided in 
the institution itself John Harvard, two hundred and forty- 
seven years ago, gave $3,500 to the college that bears his 
name, and by that gift purchased an immortality that no 
monument of granite nor tablet of brass could have preserved 
to him. So, a hundred and seventy-one years ago, Elihu 
Yale, by a gift of $2,500 to endow a college, perpetuated his 
name to generations yet unborn, while the world has already 
forgotten him as ruler of Madras and Governor of the great 
East India Company, out of whose monopoly of trade 
emerged a new empire for England. 

" The Stanford University begins its career with greater 
secured and permanent financial resources than are possessed 
by any of the established universities- or colleges of this 
country, and as accretions of the capital must continually 
outrun demands upon it, its treasury will soon be the richest 
in the world. 

" Standing at the hither of this event, its farther conse- 
quences are not plainly seen. The prospect is bewildering in 
its possibilities; for so many growths, so many institutions, 
and such a variety of virtuous and profitable activities im- 
pinge upon that which the great capital is to conjure into 
form, that the mind is embarrassed in the effort to reduce it 
to a generalization. 

" The university, if it realize its mission, will be not 

merely the resort of those who seek instruction in letters, the 

arts, and the technical knowledge which takes within its 

sweep physics and the manual occupations. It will also be 

12 



178 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

the seat of original investigation, and this, President McCosh, 
of Princeton, declares to be one of the distinguishing char- 
acteristics which marks the university and sets it apart from 
schools of lesser grade. The university must not only 
transmit the gathered wisdom of the ages, but it must add to 
the store. Hence, in this junior of the world's universities, 
most remote from the center of the Anglo-Saxon race, in the 
youngest of the great cities of the continent, but b essed 
above all its fellows in the generosity that lavishes its endow- 
ment, we may expect a wonderful impulse to be given to 
original research in philology, philosophy, physics, and 
throughout the circle of arts and sciences. Its scheme is 
precisely adapted to the line along which the distinctive in- 
tellect of this side of the continent is developing; for here the 
artistic sense is as indigenous as in Southern Europe, and the 
genius of practical work is as defined as in New England. 
The latter toils patiently to provide the condition of society 
in which the former may display its results, and it is the high 
purpose of this endowment to cheer and encourage each. It 
may be said that such a vast institution must not expect to 
serve only the population nearest to it, and hence it should 
be different in some features of its scheme. The answer to 
this is, that no curriculum can offer a more symmetrical cul- 
ture than one in which fancy and fact are so combined. The 
purpose of all labor is the production of wealth, and technical 
instruction is intended to multiply the working and earning, 
and hence the wealth-making, power of human hands. But 
the whole process would be robbed of half its motive if aes- 
thetic culture did not point out the refinements to which that 
wealth may be applied. 

" The universities of France and Germany were adapted, 
primarily, to their more immediate contacts; and they have 
continued in that state, at one with the genius of the people 
in the midst of whom they have withstood the vicissitudes of 
c Mituries. It is because they have reflected the best thought 
of these tributary people, and by the fruits of original re- 
search have fed to greater growth and trained to constant 
absorption the intellect that is subjected to their influence, 
that they are sought by students from all over the world. 
To provide here for culture in art, letters, and polytechny is 
to breathe into the ribs of this project the atmosphere that 
must sustain its growth, and the same results may fairlybe 
expected here that have elsewhere followed like efforts. 

"If judged only by the buildings and laboratories and 
workshops and professional chairs, the scholastic plant, and 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 179 

the number of students it is to nurse into knowledge, or, if 
measured by the hard problems that shall yield their long- 
secreted solution to the patience of its original investigators, 
the Stanford University is seen on one side only, and on that 
imperfectly, for the present perspective is insufficient. There 
are certain practical effects which will reach innumerable 
masses of men who will never see its class rooms nor stand 
in the shade of its walls, who may, indeed, live and die in ig- 
norance of its existence, while they are its direct beneficiaries. 
Commerce follows intellectural culture and loves to breathe 
the same air. When the Italian universities were eminent, 
commerce sought that land. The East, the cradle of the 
human race and the source of wealth easiest won, saw the 
Attic beacon on the Calabrian Peninsula, as the Magi saw 
the star of Bethlehem, and gave its spoil to freight the argo- 
sies that made Venice the proudest commercial city of her 
day. When trade abandoned the Adriatic, leaving behind 
colossal fortunes that are not yet exhausted, and monuments 
of architectural taste and fairy interiors that are yet un- 
matched, it was loth to leave learned Italy, True, in its 
wake had been Shylocks and Antonios, but there were also 
the learned doctors of Padua and Parma. Passing into the 
Mediterranean, commerce furled her sails at Genoa, and 
rested there so long that both sides of Italy had been gilt 
with the profits that followed the excellence of her schools 
before it took flight and passed the pillars of Hercules, to 
thrive in the superior luster of Leyden and Utrecht. As at 
Venice culture and commerce joined hands in building a city 
on the bosom of the sea, they were in Holland partners 
around the Zuyder Zee in creating wealth which advanced 
dyke and dam against the ocean, and reclaimed from the sea 
whole provinces of land, and built cities where fleets had 
floated. 

" Finally, Oxford and Cambridge drew commerce to the 
Thames, and made London the world's commercial capital. 

" The trade of coasts and continents follows the same 
law, and on this Pacific side of the two Americas has waited 
for some such supreme manifestations as this foundation to 
be attracted to a common center. 

"So, when Senator and Mrs. Stanford, acting upon a 
long-formed plan, at last perfected in a noble sorrow, gave 
millions in trust for higher culture, they were not only build- 
ing the walls of a university and endowing its chairs, but the 
pens that signed away a great fortune were keys actuating a 
web of wires unseen, running to myriad consequences that 



180 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

were not named in the passage of this mighty gift. In that 
act they were turning the glebe, they were planting virgin 
acres with seed, and were enlarging upon this round globe 
the gilding of the harvest. They were opening new mines, 
and were stripping fresh quarries to flux noble ores. They 
were heating the cupola and giving impulse to the currents of 
molten iron* and steel that flow into cunning moulds, to be 
shaped to many a profitable purpose. They were inspiring 
with motive the brawny arm that makes the anvil ring, and 
rewarding the cunning hand that shoves the plane and guides 
the chisel. They were rousing the shipyard's activity and 
preparing the launch that weds to the water many a stately 
ship. They were throwing the shuttle of countless looms 
through warp and woof of cotton and of wool, and giving 
distant shepherds dreams of plenty, and cheering with right 
reward the dark-skinned toiler between the snowy rows of 
cotton. They were planting vine and olive, and corn and 
wine and oil w'ill join in sacramental sanction of an act that 
in its incidents shall build many a home, with fire on its 
hearth and bloom on its lintel and its threshold pressed by 
happy feet. 

" Their own generation may not have a full conception 
of the import of what they did as it is shut out from witness- 
ing or sharing all the crowding consequences that are to come; 
but in their act is latent the luxury of thousands, the comfort 
of coming millions, because natural laws are irrepealable, 
and cultivated intellect is to-day -the founder of States and 
the promoter of commerce, as it was when Moses led Israel to 
the promised land because he was learned in all the knowl- 
edge of the Egyptians." 

JAMES G. FAIR. 

The youngest of our four Senators from California and 
Nevada, is James G. Fair, born in f^ar Clougher, County Ty- 
rone, Ireland, in the last month of 183 1. So vigorous and 
alert is he that he seems hardly to have yet passed his youth 

He came to America young, and was located in Geneva, 
Illinois. When Chicago began to be regarded as a business 
place, to that embryo city he resorted to get into busi- 
ness. He did gain there experience and training which filled 
him with aspirations which they also fitted him to attain, and 
at the age of seventeen he joined the long procession over- 
land to California. Starting in 1849, the long journey ended 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 181 

in 1850, and he was soon swinging a miner's pick in Plumas 
County, at Long Bar. He followed his mining instincts from 
prospect to prospect, and acquired that varied experience in 
all kinds of mining and all forms of gold and quartz, which 
was his preparatory school for the grand opportunities of the 
Comstock. By i860 he reached Virginia City, with some 
money, more experience, and the most faith of any man who 
had early contact with those strange and defiant ores. With 
this equipment he had confidence when others lost it, and 
he bought the claims of the doubting and the thriftless, be- 
lieving firmly in the outcome. So he owned interests in, and 
became superintendent of, the Ophir, and Hale, and Norcross, 
and later on around the properties he had believed in, and 
hung to, the Bonanza firm was formed and he was a partner. 
In his Hale and Norcross was made the first half million of 
the multiplied millions which that firm took out of the Com- 
stocks. Under Mr. Fair's advice, more claims were now ac- 
quired to consolidate and extend their properties. Then 
this shrewd miner, drawing upon his knowledge and expert 
faculty and upon the faith of his partners in him, began that 
profound search which uncovered the first bonanza and gave 
the firm one hundred millions ! This partnership is now dis- 
solved. It stands alone in ancient history and modern in the 
magnitude of its operations, the absolutely fabulous wealth it 
found in minerals, and in the private fortune which fell to 
each of its individual members. Senator Fair's capital has 
gone into eligible real estate, and since he became a member 
of the Senate he has quietly pushed into new fields of activ- 
ity, which promise to yield greater results, even, than he 
gained in the Bonanzas. He has one by one bought all the 
interests in the South Pacific Coast Railroad, which is already 
the most extensive narrow gauge system on the continent. 
It has adequate terminal facilities on San Francisco Bay, and 
its passage through Oakland has stimulated improvement in 
that city to an extent unknown for years. Cable roads col- 
lateral to it are being built, and the population of Oakland is 
getting large accessions in the prospect of that prosperity 
which many railroads bring to a commercial center. But 



182 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

Senator Fair is not building a railroad merely to enhance the 
interests of Oakland. His own State, Nevada, is the ulti- 
mate beneficiary of his enterprise, and when he has given her 
a narrow gauge line to San Francisco, and furnished the 
trunk line of a system so well adapted to the penetration of 
her valleys and the scaling of her mountains, Nevada will be 
covered with a network of narrow gauge feeders to this main 
line, which will help the development of her mines and en- 
courage her growing agriculture. Such a road and its collat- 
erals are the present vital need of that State. The East never 
tires of girding at Nevada. It is denounced as a " rotten 
borough," and Rhode Island and Delaware turn up their little 
noses at it. Its disestablishment has been agitated, and its 
brave and hardy people have been taunted with decreasing 
population and receding prosperity. The best friend Nevada 
can have just now is the capitalist, who will put all the re- 
sources of her soil, grazing, glebe, and mineral, within reach 
of those who want to develop them, by just such a transpor- 
tation system as Senator Fair has in hand. But let no man 
fancy that this narrow gauge road will stop in Nevada. A 
narrow gauge line is building from the Missouri River toward 
Denver. From Denver to Salt Lake is already in operation 
the Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge, and grading for 
a narrow gauge from Salt Lake already reaches far westward. 
So it is manifest destiny that Senator Fair should be at the 
head of a transcontinental narrow gauge railroad, than which 
no business venture can be of greater interest to the com- 
mercial community, while its saving grace to Nevada is in- 
disputable. 

In the Senate Mr. Fair has influence ranking with men 
of the first class. Suave and thoughtful of others, he is a 
great social favorite, while the Senate consults his views upon 
a business question and adopts them with confidence. Affa- 
ble, approachable, and zealous, the New Empire counts him 
amongst the major forces in commerce and public life, 
upon which she relies to push forward the frontiers of pros- 
perity. 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 183 



FINALE, 



We have now passed in review the characteristic features 
of the New Empire. In area it is so large that all of Eu- 
rope would be hidden in it. Its mountains are noble in their 
aspect, and are necessary and useful features in its climatolgy. 
Its railway system is being rapidly approximated to the 
full measure of present needs, with facilities for ready exten- 
sion to accommodate the future, wfeile its river traffic, its coast 
and trans-Pacific steamers, its noble argosies of sailing craft, 
complete a system for the convenience of travel and traffic, 
that is unsurpassed. 

Of all this, and all that is to be, San Francisco is the com- 
mercial center. Here the Central and South Americas, the 
Islands of the Sea, and Asia, will bring their trade, and the 
Golden Gate will receive the commerce of the world. 

Here a high civilization will always have its seat, and 
there is room for millions of people to plant and sustain its 
institutions. The fact will be demonstrated that the Pacific 
side of this continent can sustain a denser population than 
the Atlantic Coast, or the interior, because our Asiatic climate 
and fertility imply an Asiatic approximation in the density 
of population. The East is the analogy of Northern Europe, 
and resembles it in the characteristics of its people. 

If the first settlement had been on this side of the con- 
tinent, the East would be now far less known, because far less 
desirable than is the New Empire. 

We have here great men and excellent, cultured women, 
and the material resources which call out the talents of State 
makers and home builders. 

We have outlined the advantages which here await the 
settler and the inventor, and have aimed to wisely guide the 
inquiries we hope to have stimulated. We have as frankly 
pointed out the obstructions to the future as the remedies 
which we believe will overcome them, and have dealt in 
thorough candor with our readers. But, after all, the half has 
not been told, and the New Empire has to be seen to be ap- 
preciated in all its merits. 



184 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

If we have persuaded our countrymen that Nature here 
spreads beauties of scenery which should be enjoyed in pref- 
erence to the lesser graces of Europe, and if we have con- 
vinced any of the comforts and pleasures of life in this win- 
terless land, our work has in accomplishment fulfilled the 
benevolence of its intention. 



TTTHE tending of flocks and herds was the earliest industry 
1 of California, being followed by the Spanish and Mexi- 
can settlers, who did not suspect the greater means of 
wealth in the precious metals, above whose hiding places 
their sheep and cattle nibbled the mountain herbage. 
The State has retained its position as a producer of wools of 
very excellent staple, and their manufacture has of recent 
years engaged the attention of manufacturing capital.. 

The Golden Gate Woolen Company was comprehen- 
sively organized in 1881, with a capital of $400,000. The 
Mills occupy a whole block of land in San Francisco, near 
the Mission. The building is 408x120 feet, two stories high. 
It is equipped with the most, improved machinery, and its 
product is very widely celebrated. Its capacity is 1,000 
pounds, per day, of finished woolens. Its blankets are the 
perfection of that class of goods. They were supplied to 
the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise, and to the 
Imperial household of Japan, as the very best in the market. 
The blankets and flannels of this mill are sought by 
Eastern merchants, and hold primacy in the American market. 

THE RISDON IRON WORKS. 

TTTHESE iron works, located in San Francisco, were incor- 
X porated in 1868. Mining on the coast had then 
passed into the period of scientific methods, and deep min- 
ing depended upon what iron founders and machinists could 
do in the way of pumps, lifts, and ventilation. So com- 
pletely did the Risdon works meet the demand, that when 
downward progress in the combination shaft of the Chollar, 
Norcross, Savage, and Comstocks was checked, at twenty-two 
hundred feet, by water which no pump then known could drain, 
these works devised and manufactured the pumping machin- 
ery which has drained these mines to a depth of 3,100 feet, 
and kept them in perfect condition for working. The hy- 
draulic machinery which has performed this work, raising 3,000 
gallons per minute from that depth, has run continuously, 
and is but little the worse for the wear of its long and hard 
service. The motive power is water. The Risdon Works 



188 THE NEW EMPIRE. 

also provided the system of powerful pumps for the Eureka 
Consolidated Mine, in Nevada. These pumps are run by 
water under a pressure of i,ooo pounds to the square inch, 
which, after doing its work, is raised by a steam ertgine to the 
surface, where it is gathered into an accumulator and dropped 
again to the bottom of the 6oo-feet level, doing its work over 
and over again. We know of no other instance in which a 
hydraulic power is secured by such continuous use of the 
same water. All the great mines of the coast and the Terri- 
tories are fitted out with machinery made at the Risdon works. 
Their mill for the Alaska Mine, 120 stamps, is the largest 
ore mill in the world. These works have the facilities to adapt 
themselves to all the changes and progress possible in the 
mining and methods of reduction to which our mineral in- 
dustry- is subject, and they are certainly beyond Eastern 
competition in the production of mining machinery as a 
specialty. 

THE SPRECKELS SUGAR REFINERY. 

^/J FEW years ago the successful founding of a sugar re- 
yl fining industry in San Francisco would have been jeered 

as unnatural, because of its remoteness from cane fields. 
The keen mercantile genius of Claus Spreckels has, however, 
answered their jeers by a demonstrated success. His sugar 
refinery is one of the most extensive on the continent, and 
the commerce collateral to it runs into the millions every year 

New comers to the Coast, who have grown accustomed 
to the Eastern sugars, adulterated with glucose, are sure to 
over-sweeten when they begin using the pure sugars from the 
Spreckels works. The raw sugars for this refinery come from 
the Sandwich Islands, where thousands of acres of planta- 
tions are devoted to raising cane for these works alone. 

Mr. Spreckels is the master of all the processes used in 
his refinery, and in many respects they are peculiar to these 
works because they are his own devices. He should be re- 
membered as som thing more than a great merchant; for he 
is a geat benefactor, because he has always supplied the mar- 
ket with sugar, the luxury of the poor, and a dietetic neces- 
sity, that is perfectly wholesome and pure. 

SPERRY'S STOCKTON MILLS. 

IN Europe, and in the older commercial centers of this coun- 
try, it is part of the value of a business that it has been 
for more than one generation in the same family. The 
same evidence of solidity is beginning to be appreciated in this 



THE NEW EMPIRE. 189 

newer land, and that is why the present generation of Cali- 
fornians, remembering the preferences of their sires, ask for 

SPERRY'S STOCKTON FLOUR, 

Because Sperry started those mills thirty years ago, and his 
family is still concerned in their management. All of the 
reductions on their mills are accomplished by the new, or 
Hungarian roller process, which is making the eating of bread 
possible after all the buhrs are taken from the quarry, for it 
does away with stones entirely. California flour won its first 
fame abroad under Sperry's brand, and the product of these 
mills is as great a favorite in Liverpool as in San Francisco. 

Stockton stands at the mouth of the San Joaquin Val- 
ley wheat region, and there stands the new, rebuilt, reorgan- 
ized, and re-equipped Sperry's Mill, which is not only the 
completest in its interior furnishing and mechanism, but in its 
exterior is an architectural ornament to the city. Its capacity 
is 1,400 barrels of flour per day, and the demand is so great 
that the fires are never banked. 

People eat bread made, by the roller process; they find 
that the flour goes farther, but they don't stop to think why 
they are getting more and better for their money. It is be- 
cause exceedingly hard and dry wheats of California when 
ground by mill stones are wet to such an extent that the 
buyer is paying for water instead of flour. This watered 
flour is not reliable in its keeping qualities, nor does it 
produce as good bread. Their new Hungarian roller process 
does its most perfect work on the dry, hard wheat, so their 
customers are not buying water, and the bread made from 
their flour is the best. 

They prepare, also, the delicacies of the grist mill, Ger- 
mea, the new and wholesome breakfast meal, and all the other 
foods that are furnished by grain. 

Remember that Sperry's Mill and the wheat fields of 
California grew up together, and each of these California in- 
stitutions has depended upon the other for its reputation. 



\^ 



